Across the Ocean
by Brooke84
Summary: “She had pictures of all the men who were Death Eaters on file in her office. She guessed if she ever met one the only thing she would be able to see would be his eyes. This was someone that she knew, but who did she know that could be a Death Eater?”D
1. Chapter 1: Graduation

Even though it was still morning, Kayley already felt tired. She had just returned home from her graduation and was still mad at her parents for not being there. Well, that wasn't entirely true. They had appeared just long enough to see her awarded her degree. Now, she was going over to her cousin Sky's house to celebrate. Kayley had gladly accepted the invitation, since the idea of staying home by herself on her graduation day didn't appeal to her. Besides, Sky was her best friend and always made her feel better when her parents ignored her.

As Kayley hung up her graduation robes, she wondered where her brother, Carter, had been. He was almost five years older than she was, and she hadn't seen much of him while growing up, and less of him since he graduated, but she had still expected him to be there for her graduation. Surely, he could have found the time to travel home from England for something this important. She couldn't remember the name of the organization he had joined, but was too young to be so important that he couldn't miss a day of work. Though, the way her parents spoke of him that might not be entirely true.

They always compared her to Jake. She frowned, wondering what had possessed her brother to go by such and informal version of his name. He would always be Carter to her, since she didn't think Jacob suited him.

'Oh, well, it didn't matter,' Kayley thought. She made her way back to the door. She checked the sitting room for mail before leaving, and she noticed a folded piece of paper on the coffee table. Feeling curious, she sat down on the couch and read the paper that turned out to be a letter addressed to her parents.

Then she reread it. She couldn't believe what it said. Carter had been arrested in London and sent to Azkaban. Kayley set the paper back down, trying to leave it just how she had found it. Azkaban… it sounded familiar, well, not really familiar, but like she should know what it meant. She continued on her way to the front door. She made sure that the door was shut securely behind her, still thinking about Azkaban, and Apparated to Sky's house.

Sky's family had a mansion almost as large as Kayley's. Kayley knocked on the door and was admitted by a house-elf.

She went to the living room and found all of Sky's family and the other guests in there. Aunt Kya was attending to her guests; Uncle Evan was chatting with some of his friends. Kayley noticed two large piles of presents stacked along the wall.

Kya saw Kayley enter the room and hurried over to give her niece a hug. "We've been expecting you," said Aunt Kya. She had her shoulder length brown hair drawn up in a clip, just like Kayley's. Aunt Kya was her mother's sister.

"We added you to the cake," Aunt Kya said, winking at her.

"I can't wait to see it," Kayley said enthusiastically.

"I'm glad you came, Kay."

"Me too," said Kayley. "I'm going to go look at the cake." She smiled at her aunt as she headed toward the cake.

Sky met her half way; they hugged and went to look at the cake together. The picture of Sky's fifth birthday was on it. Kayley smiled– it was one of their favorite pictures. The candles went out as the girls took deep breaths and blew, and then the scene replayed. There was a ten-year old Carter smirking at them from his chair in the picture.

"I opened _one _of Mom and Dad's presents already," Sky said. "It was a beautiful dress. Come and see it!" She turned to head to her bedroom. Kayley followed with interest. They went through the many rooms and up the many stairs to get to Sky's room

Sky put the dress back in the closet after they were done examining it. Kayley wondered absent-mindedly if her parents had gotten her a present. Probably not, she decided as she followed Sky out of the room.

When they were walking back to the living room, they passed a storage room, cluttered with all sorts of broken objects, several of them Kayley couldn't identify. There was a broken telescope leaning against the wall, a set of lopsided scales in one corner and a cauldron with a hole in it in the center of the room under a table piled with newspapers. Kayley curiosity got the better of her when she didn't recognize the name of the paper, and she doubled back, Sky following her. They stepped into the room. The top the paper had _The Daily Prophet _written on the front. Kayley picked it up, captivated. Sky was peering over her shoulder.

"What's this?" Kayley asked.

"That's an English newspaper," Sky replied.

"Why do you have an English newspaper?" asked Kayley.

"Dad works for the Ministry, and they might have to help the Brits fight the Dark Lord. Dad doesn't want the Ministry to get involved, but they have to keep track of the goings on over there." Sky answered.

Kayley nodded and read the headline: _"More Guards at Azkaban." _

Kayley read the story with interest. Azkaban– the wizard prison. Her brother was in wizard prison! Kayley shook her head. She really wasn't surprised. He had joined an organization that had illegal dealings, so he'd finally got caught. She hadn't heard much about the Dark Lord, and she was mildly curious.

"Can I borrow these?" she asked Sky.

"Err…I don't know," said Sky. "They're Dad's. You'd have to ask him." Kayley nodded and lead the way back to the living room.

Kya greeted them with, "Ah, there you are. We were waiting on you to cut the cake." She handed a knife to both girls.

They went over to the table where the cake was sitting, and Kayley cut it down the middle. The five-year old girls in the picture kept blowing out the candles, unfazed by what was happening outside their picture. Kayley and Sky cut one half into servings and served everyone before taking a pieces for themselves and sitting down together to enjoy the cake.

Then they opened their presents. They both got towels, along with a lot of other stuff. There was different magical gifts, some nice things (like jewelry), but only from relatives and lots of other stuff that one gets when one gets a new house. Usually, new graduates moved out of their parents' houses, but Kayley had no intention of doing this, and she imagined that neither did Sky. "Merlin! We graduated, not got married!" Sky exclaimed when she opened a set of dishes.

After that, they told several guests good-bye. Family and close friends remained for dinner. After all of the guests had left, it was pretty late and everyone was fairly tired. Sky, Kayley, Aunt Kya and Uncle Evan retreated to the sitting room to chat.

"Uncle Evan?" Kayley asked. When he looked at her, she took it as a sign to continue. "I saw a rather large stack of papers in the storage room. Sky said that they were British… I looked at the top one, and I was wondering if I could borrow them?"

"You can have them. Just don't get rid of them, in case I need them back," Uncle Evan answered in a bored tone. Kayley could tell that he was ready to go to bed.

"I'll just go get them, then," Kayley said as she stood up. She went into the storage room and the stack of papers. With a wave of her hand, she sent them to her house. It was nice to be out of school and allowed to do magic when ever she wanted. She went back to the sitting room and gave her aunt and uncle a hug, takingher leave. Then she went to the front porch before Apparaitng home.

At home, it was dark and quiet. Kayley lit the chandeliers and candles to ward off the oppressive atmosphere as she made her way through the house. It appeared that her parents still weren't home. Kayley inwardly groaned. She wasn't sure why she had wanted her parents home. She _hated_ it when they were home. She was also really mad at them. For some reason, being mad at them made her more tired. She undressed and climbed into her big oak bed.

When Kayley woke up the next morning, the sun was pouring through her square window. There was a rainbow on the floor, made from the sun catcher that was handing from an inconspicuous nail stuck in the wood paneling on top of the window. She reluctantly got up.

She dressed quickly, wondering if her parents were home. She was slightly put out when she took the stairs two at a time calling for them and received no answer. She made her way nonchalantly to the dining room, she sat down at the table, and summoned the papers that she had borrowed from Uncle Evan.

While she sipped her coffee, some of the more interesting articles jumped out at her. Carter had made the paper. She reread the sentence over and over again: _Among them was Jacob Daniels. He was accused of torturing Muggles north of just London. He might have also been involved in the deaths of several others. _

Torturing Muggles? Aiding in the deaths of _many_ others? He hadn't said exactly _why _he went to Britain, just vague mentions of a business opportunity. Somewhat vexed, she picked up another paper.

After several hours of reading back issues of the _Prophet,_ she now understood what was taking her parents so long. They would be proud of him, but annoyed that he was in prison. Idiot. If he was going to do stuff like that, he shouldn't have got caught. Her parents probably would tell him that– if they ever got in to see him. She doubted that they would.

The doorbell rang. Kayley walked briskly to the front door to see who it was. It had to be family; she hadn't invited anyone over. She opened the huge oak door to see Sky standing on her porch and let her cousin in.

"What took so long?" Sky demanded walking into the entrance hall.

"Long walk," Kayley replied, annoyed at being taken away from her papers. Sky rolled her eyes at her, going … somewhere, Kayley wasn't sure where. Sky always acted like she owned the place and plopped down on the couch in the first sitting room that she came to.

"So…" Kayley said, eyeing her cousin who was making herself comfortable.

"So what?" Sky asked looking curious.

"So, why did you interrupt my breakfast? So, why did you make me walk all the way to the door? So, why are you sitting on my couch, in my sitting room, and why do you think you own this house?" Kayley questioned. Sky looked slightly taken aback.

"Well, I came to talk to you about careers," said Sky, looking very businesslike.

"Didn't you already talk to Miss Strump about that?" Kayley asked feeling more and more annoyed by the minute. She wanted to get back to the mystery of what her brother was doing in England.

"Yes, well, she had a lot of options," Sky said, not noticing the annoyance in Kayley's voice. Kayley crossed her arms, allowing her expression to tell Sky that she was annoyed. Sky didn't get it.

"Why are you asking me? Why don't you go home, and discuss it with you're parents?"

"Because they only annoy me," Sky whined.

Kayley rolled her eyes. "Oh, really?" she said.

"And I figured that you already knew what you were doing," Sky said hopefully.

"Yup," Kayley said flatly. She immediately had her cousin's attention.

"So, what are you doing?" Sky asked.

Kayley, deciding that Sky was not going to be easy to get rid of sat down in the chair facing her cousin. "I'm going to go apply for a position in the International Relationship's Office at the Ministry tomorrow," Kayley told her.

Sky looked fascinated "Really?"

"No," Kayley said, unenthusiastically and Sky glared at her.

"What do you think I should do?" asked Sky after a small pause.

"Work at a department store of some kind," Kayley answered.

"I've thought about that," Sky said seriously.

"So why don't you?" Kayley asked.

"I will," Sky said standing up. "I'll go and apply tomorrow." She headed towards the door.

"Thank you," she called over her shoulder, but Kayley didn't get up. She heard Sky let herself out.

Kayley went back to the dining room and resumed studying the papers. She finally decided that she had learned all that she could handle for one day and put them up. Tomorrow she would apply at the Ministry.


	2. Chapter 2: the Ministry

Chapter Two: The Ministry

It was another sunny morning when Kayley woke up the next day. Kayley got up and dressed herself quickly. Today she would apply for the ministry job. Kayley really hadn't known what she wanted to do until about three years ago. The advice councilor had showed her the options and she had decided to look closer at the ministry. The more that she looked into International Relations the more interested she was in it. Especially with the way things were going in Britain.

After Kayley ate breakfast she Apparated to the ministry office. It was a nice building, Kayley thought. The Muggles thought that it looked like a city owned building that was about to fall down. Kayley walked purposefully up to the double glass doors. She entered the lobby. She had come in the visitors' entrance.

The lobby was a light blue with darker blue leather chairs. It was a blocked off space at the far end of the room. A large desk that the secretary sat behind blocked off the space. There were fake trees placed around the room and a very realistic unicorn boarder lined the wall. The unicorns would move and chase each other playfully.

The young secretary smiled at Kayley as she approached the desk. Kayley reached the desk and leaned on it casually. "Can I help you?" The secretary asked, still smiling.

"Yes, I'm here to fill out a job application." Kayley said. The young secretary picked up her glasses off the desk.

"What department?" She asked walking over to one of the large file cabinets.

"International Relationships." Kayley said professionally. The secretary picked through papers until she was satisfied that she had the right one. She looked it over one last time before she gave it to Kayley.

"You may fill it out here or you may send it in via owl post. Be sure and fill it out completely." The secretary advised.

"Thank you." Kayley said heading to the door.

Kayley Apparated home. She sat down at the same table that she had read the _Daily Prophet_ at. Kayley took out her pheasant quill, and looked at the paper. It had the usual questions. Name? Date? Age? Years of education? Kayley counted out her years of education in her head. She started when she was ten and went until she was eighteen. That was eight years. Kayley wrote down eight years and two summers of pretraining. Then it wanted to know her level of education. She couldn't remember which N.E.W.T.s she got and went up stairs to get her degree. She found it in one of her drawers and went downstairs to finish the application. She copied the information on to the form and magically made a copy of her degree. She finished the application and Apparated to the post office. She chose a big barn owl and attached the documents to its leg. Then she watched it take off.

The next day she looked at the papers. It appeared that some of the wizards that were now guarding Azkaban had been injured when one of the prisoners had got a hold of a wand. No one escaped and no one was killed. None of the other papers had anything interesting in them. Kayley was surprised by the amount of defense articles. Was it really that bad over there?

That weekend Kayley and Sky went shopping. They went to many stores, but they spent the most time at the store that Sky worked at. Sky couldn't wait to use her employee discount.

When Kayley got home that day she subscribed to the _Daily Prophet_. A week passed. The next Friday Kayley was sitting at her table reading the _Daily Prophet. _She had given up on the job at the Ministry, and was trying to think of something else in the back of her mind while she read the article on defense maneuvers for strangling curses. She was interrupted by a large Great Horned Owl that had just landed on her table. He held out his leg so that she could take off the official looking parchment. He left, and Kayley read the parchment. It said that she had been hired for a position at the ministry as an understudy for the assistant to the Head of the Department. It said that she should report for work Monday. Kayley wrote a hasty note to her uncle and ran to the door to Apparate to the post office to mail it. When she got back she ran to her room to pick out what to wear for her first day.

Monday morning the alarm went off at six-thirty. Kayley hit the snooze button several times and finally got up at seven. She showered and put on her best black robes. She was supposed to be there at eight. Kayley went out onto her porch and Apparated.

Kayley pushed the door open to the official looking building. There was the young secretary sitting at the desk. She looked as if she hadn't moved since Kayley was last there. If she hadn't had on a different pair of clothes Kayley would have sworn that she hadn't left the office. Kayley pushed the hair out of her face that had fallen out of her clip and walked over to the secretary.

"May I help you?" the secretary smiled.

"Err… yes." Kayley said, marveling at the secretary's energetic attitude at eight in the morning, and secretly wondering what kind of drugs she was on. "I'm looking for the Department of International Relationships." Kayley said. She was starting to get tired, from seeing the secretary's alertness. She started staring at the desk as soon as she had finished her sentence. While she was examining the wood she noticed a nameplate. It read Leta.

Leta beamed at her. "You got the job, then!" She exclaimed.

"Yes," Kayley said feeling uncomfortable. She didn't want to get into a conversation with Leta.

"Use the elevator, there," Leta said pointing to what unmistakably was an elevator. Kayley was surprised that she hadn't noticed it before. "It's on the eighth level." Leta smiled.

"Well, err, thanks then." Kayley said uncertainly, and headed toward the elevator. Once in the elevator Kayley pushed the eight button. It startled her when it lurched forward with a jerk, and then stopped just as abruptly.

The shiny metal door opened to revel a large hall and another secretary's desk was right in front of the door. Kayley headed straight to it. This secretary looked more normal. She looked properly tired and was gulping down a liquid from a mug that smelled suspiciously like coffee. Kayley was all the way to her desk before she looked up. While Kayley was waiting she glanced at the nameplate. This secretary's name was Nichelle. She looked slightly older than Leta, but not much.

Nichelle put down her mug and looked at her. "Yes?" She asked, surveying Kayley.

"I'm here for the understudy to the assistant for the Head of the Department job." Kayley said, much more calmly than she had downstairs.

"Ah, yes, the last door down that hall, that's on the right side. It has a number fifteen on it." Nichelle said. "Anything else?" She asked.

"Umm, yes, where can I get a cup of coffee?" Kayley asked. She was about out of adrenaline.

Nichelle smirked. "Sorry, it's my own privet stash."

"I see," Kayley said, coolly. "Thanks." She said heading off the way that she had been directed.

Kayley didn't have to walk far. She soon came to the door that was marked number fifteen. There was a nameplate on the door. It read Stephanie Kipling. Kayley hesitated and then raised her fist and knocked. She heard a chair being pushed back and slow footsteps move towards the door.

When the door opened there was a short elderly lady there. She looked like she had reached retirement age years ago. As old as she was, she didn't slump and she looked completely competent. She was wearing bottle green robes. The secretaries had all been wearing casual Muggle clothes. This lady looked very stern, and Kayley wondered if they would get a long.

"Mrs. Kipling?" Kayley ask hesitantly. "Hi, I'm Kayley Daniels. I'm here for the understudy to the Assistant for the Head of the Department position." Kayley said, not knowing what else to do. The older lady looked her up and down like a hawk.

"I'd hoped that you would be older." She sighed. Kayley was feeling more and more put out by the moment. "How old are you?" She asked, still sizing her up.

"I'm eighteen." Kayley said, knowing that that would be disappointing to this stern lady. Sure enough, she looked like she had just been diagnosed with a terrible disease.

"Well, come in then." Mrs. Kipling said, standing back to let her in. Mrs. Kipling shut the door as soon as Kayley was in. She led the way to her desk. It was a beautiful room. The carpet was a blue green and the walls were a teal. There were pictures of the country adorning the walls. It was an exceptionally big room; there was a miniature parlor in one corner of the room, and large file cabinets on the side opposite. All of the furniture was mahogany. The chairs in the parlor were padded with a floral print. So were the two chairs in front of the desk that was at the far end of the room, but they were shorter than the tall straight back parlor chairs.

"Sit." Mrs. Kipling said motioning to one of the chairs in front of her desk. Kayley felt like she was back in high school, and she hadn't been out four months. Kayley sat and waited politely for the thorough interrogation that she knew was coming.

"So," Mrs. Kipling said seating herself behind the desk. "You graduated this year?"

"Yes, ma'am," Kayley answered, looking politely at Mrs. Kipling. She was careful to sit up straight. Mrs. Kipling looked like a woman who would appreciate that.

"You think that you can handle this job?" She asked.

"Yes, ma'am," Kayley said again.

"How were your grades?"

"They were very good, ma'am, straight As." Kayley said. She was determined for this interview to go well."

"Did you get into trouble?"

"No serious trouble." Kayley said truthfully.

"Are you aware of what's going on in Britain?" Mrs. Kipling asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Yes, ma'am, I've subscribed to the _Daily Prophet_." Mrs. Kipling sighed.

"Well that helps." She said earnestly.

"Miss- What did you say that your last name was?"

"Daniels."

"Mrs. Daniels, are you ready to get to work?"

"Yes, ma'am," Kayley said, glad that Mrs. Kipling was satisfied with their interview.

"Lucky!" She called depositing her cloak on a chair in the first sitting room she came to. She was exhausted after her first day of work, and it wasn't even over yet. Mrs. Kipling had given her a tour and some small tasks. Kayley thought that she must be testing her. A small house- elf, wearing an old baby blanked as a toga appeared.

"Yes mistress?" The house elf inquired, bowing.

"I'm ready for my dinner. I'd like something a little more special today- perhaps roast beef." The little creature smiled at her and bowed again.

"Yes mistress." It said before it disappeared. Kayley made her way to the dining room. The _Daily Prophet_ that had come that morning was on the table. She had paid one cent for it. They could convert the money them selves. She read it while a glass of ice tea appeared in front of her. There was nothing of importance to her in it. She laid it aside where the weeks stack would be Sunday. On Sundays she filed them.

After Kayley had sipped her ice tea for a small amount of time, deep in thought, her dinner appeared in front of her. Kayley was very full when she had finished. House- elf food was always very good- better than restaurants. Kayley liked to cook. She had a cooking class in school. She didn't get to very much anymore. It offended the house-elves. It didn't matter though if she didn't get to very much, the important thing was that she could. If ever there wasn't a house-elf around she wouldn't starve.

Kayley decided to take a walk around the grounds. She was worried about Apparating on such a full stomach. Her apparitions didn't seem to go very well when she was full. She checked her watch. She had thirty minutes until she had to be back. She pulled on her traveling cloak and retreated to the Roman Garden- one of her favorites. She used to walk through it with her mother when she was younger. She wondered where her mother was now, and how it was going with Carter. Kayley checked her watch. It was time. She watched a gold fish disappear beneath the surface of the green pond before she turned into the nothingness as she Apparated.

Kayley did not speak to either secretary on her way back to Mrs. Kipling's office. She knocked on the door and went in with out waiting for a reply. Mrs. Kipling was sitting behind her desk. She was going through some papers. "Ah, you're on time." She said looking up.

"I'm not sure that this job will be much more fun than the last one, but it should be more interesting." She sat the papers on one corner of the desk and led the way to the towering file cabinets. She pulled out a key ring and unlocked all of the cabinets. "I'm afraid that this will be quite a mess." She said. "I've just been stuffing them in there where they'll fit- impossible to find anything."

She turned some papers over in her hand. "I dare say that this will be educational." She said replacing the papers. "Okay, what I want you to do is take out all of the papers, and put them in stacks according to date. Then after you've done that alphabetize them and then put them back with the oldest in the bottom drawer in the cabinet farthest to the left. After you fill a cabinet label it by year. Since you work here none of it is confidential _to you_ read any thing that you find interesting. Read anything you want. I think that as unpleasant as this task is, it is the best way to get you familiar to my files. I'd like you to have a good general knowledge of them. Well, that's about it I think. Have fun." She said, returning to her desk.

Kayley went to work emptying the bottom drawer of a cabinet and started sorting its contents by date.

It took Kayley a week and a half to finish the filing, and then Mrs. Kipling had a whole other room _full_ of file cabinets. The room took almost three weeks. The Monday after Kayley finished the room she came to work to find that Mrs. Kipling wasn't there yet.

Kayley sat in the 'parlor' waiting for Mrs. Kipling. She examined the tea set and the lamp that sat on the table beside her chair. She also examined the pictures that hung on the wall. Most of them were of old farm houses, but some portrayed simple country houses with magnificent gardens. Kayley was trying to picture what the inside of the houses looked like when Mrs. Kipling walked in.

"Sorry I'm late." Mrs. Kipling apologized, "Your desk should be here tomorrow…."

"I'm getting a desk?" Mrs. Kipling nodded.

"Thursday I have a meeting to attend. Would you like to come?" Kayley sensed that the invitation was not optional, but it didn't matter because she wanted to go.

"Yes, ma'am," Kayley said.

"Good, now, I have an other unpleasant task that has to be done. Get a Death Eater profile out of the cabinet." Mrs. Kipling said heading over to the closet. She pulled out several stacks of _Daily Prophets_ and a small TV tray. She transfigured the TV tray into a fairly nice desk and a parlor chair into an office chair and sat a stack of newspapers on it. Kayley pulled out an 'Alecto' from the file cabinet. She took the file over to the 'desk' and set it down, and then she looked questioningly at Mrs. Kipling.

"We're updating our profiles, for the meeting on Thursday." Kayley nodded and got to work. Mrs. Kipling went over to the filing cabinet and took out the Amycus file. It took Kayley a good forty-five minutes to scan all of the news papers. Then she progressed to 'Avery'.

Kayley was easily keeping up with Mrs. Kipling. She then started on a Jugson, and then it was time for her to go to lunch.

She had just started on 'Severus Snape' when it was time for her to go home. She once again carelessly tossed her cloak on a maroon chair in the sitting room. Lucky, who had gotten used to the routine, came with out being called. Kayley read the paper that she hadn't had time for yet while she ate supper and then went to bed.

The next morning Mrs. Kipling let Kayley finish the Yaxley profile by herself. Then she spent the rest of the morning organizing the papers. That afternoon she and Mrs. Kipling oversaw the placement of Kayley's new desk. It was a beautiful desk. It was made of cherry wood and gold handles that were polished until the light reflected off of them almost blindingly. Kayley thought that it was a little fancy, but it went well with Mrs. Kipling's room. It came with a navy blue office chair that has the nice broad rubber arm rests. After Kayley finished examining the beautiful desk she set to work stalking it with all of the supplies that she would need- well, all of the supplies that she already had. Which were some pencils and pens.

Thursday Kayley got to work ten minutes early. Mrs. Kipling was already at her desk getting stuff ready. She didn't look nervous. Kayley felt really nervous. "You need a pad of paper and a pen." Mrs. Kipling said not looking up.

"Err…" Kayley said.

"You don't have them, do you?" Mrs. Kipling said looking up.

"No ma'am." She replied.

"Here, have these." Mrs. Kipling said tossing her a yellow note paper pad and a motel pen. "Be sure and have all of you're supplies by Monday. Help me get these files organized." Kayley walked over to her own desk and started organizing the files that had been left askew on her desk yesterday while she was perfecting them. The meeting was to start at ten. Kayley and Mrs. Kipling spent almost three hours organizing the files that were to go- they were not only Death Eater files. Kayley was surprised by the supply regulations and sport regulations that she went through.

At ten 'till ten they started to the meeting. "Remember, the meeting _starts_ at ten, so that means that you should be there before ten to find a seat, and get your stuff ready." Mrs. Kipling said as they walked down the hall that apparently led to the meeting room. Kayley nodded behind the stack of files that came up to her chin.

Mrs. Kipling turned left and Kayley followed her. There was a long table set up. Mrs. Kipling deposited her books on the table and Kayley followed suit. The room was slowly starting to fill with people. There was an elderly wizard with thinning white hair, he sat by Mrs. Kipling and they started to talk.

"Be sure and take notes." Mrs. Kipling said as the apparent last person came in and closed the door. It was the minister. Minister Kayshawn took his seat at the head of the table. Mrs. Kipling gave her report and so did some others.

The meeting was mostly about the Death Eaters and the happenings in England, though they did discuss other topics. They discussed where the next Quidditch World Cup would take place. There were different nominations to vote on, apparently the nominations had taken place earlier and they already had all of the nominees. Lastly some one had to be assigned to fix the cauldron thickness, since some time in 1994 some idiot messed them up. They were too thick and it was costing the companies a fortune to make them, hence driving up the cauldron price to ridiculous levels. Then they passed a law that the prices could only go so high, to help the consumer. Then many stores quit carrying them because they were not making a prophet, in fact they were costing money. The job was awarded to Mrs. Kipling.

The meeting took most of two hours. They gathered up their stuff and went back to their offices, each going their separate ways. Kayley trotted to keep up with Mrs. Kipling who was walking very briskly. She once again had files up to her chin and was having trouble keeping up. They soon reached their office. Kayley grabbed up her traveling cloak to go home to lunch. She would be leaving thirty minutes late, the time she was supposed to get back.

"Kayley," Mrs. Kipling said, as she fought with the fastener on her cloak.

"Yeah?" Kayley asked, hearing the click of the fastener with satisfaction, and looking up.

"I was thinking- I'd like you to take the cauldron report, and you may now have your lunch break from twelve to one." Mrs. Kipling said, looking Kayley right in the eye.

"Yeah, sure." Kayley said straightening her cloak.

"Okay, I'll get you the files on it tomorrow and you can start on it. Why don't you take the rest of the day off?" Kayley smiled.

"Thanks, Mrs. Kipling." Kayley said pushing her hair off her shoulders, and behind her. "See you tomorrow." Kayley said before she left.

Kayley went out that night with Sky. Kayley Apparated afterwards to her house. She disarmed the door and went in. The kerosene lamps were burning in the hall when she came in. She hadn't lit the lamps. It had still been light when she left. The candles were all lit and so were the chandeliers in every room she went through the house every room she went through the lights were lit, but not in the secondary rooms.

She was almost to the dining room. "Hello?" She called. There was no answer, but she could distinctly hear clicking in the dining room. Clicking that sounded suspiciously like silverware clicking against plates. Whoever was in _her _house was eating at _her_ table. She raised her wand before she went into the room. Whoever was in there didn't sound like they were worried about being caught. She raised her wand and peeked around the corner. Sitting at her dining room table, at her mother and father's places were…her mother and father!

Kayley's mother, Katharine Daniels, was a pretty woman. She was beautiful. She had blond hair and blue eyes, and a nicely shaped face. Kayley's face looked just like her mother's except she had dark brown eyes that were unmistakably her father's. Kayley's mother's age was only showed by the shallow wrinkles on her pretty face. She had soft milky skin that strongly resembled cream. Kayley's skin was just like her mother's. Kayley's father, Kevin Daniels, had more tanned skin, and it was rougher of course, but not rough. He had brown hair and when the light caught it just right you could see his highlights. Kayley's mother often pointed out that she did not have her hair.

"How- What- When-Why?" Kayley stuttered. She decided to stop and think about what she wanted to say- her father had taught her that. "When did you get home?" Kayley asked finally.

"This afternoon. You weren't home and so we asked Kya and she said that you and Sky had gone to a movie." Kayley's mother said.

"What happened? Did you see Carter?"

"No, nothing happened. We gave up and came home." Kayley's father said, "What did we miss?"

Kayley suddenly got mad. She felt the blood rush to her face and her fingernails pierce her palms when her hands involuntarily balled themselves into fists. "Oh, _nothing_. _Much_. I just graduated, got a job, oh, and I think I got a promotion today!" She said.

"That's good." Mrs. Daniels said. Kayley was stunned. '_That's good?' THAT'S GOOD!_ _That was all that she had to say! _Kayley turned on her heal, and stormed to her room.

"What's wrong with her?" Mr. Daniels asked, as Kayley stomped up the stairs. Mrs. Daniels just shrugged.

Kayley threw the door open to her room. She unfastened her cloak, and threw it on the floor. She flopped herself onto her bed with all of the force that she possessed. _That's good? _She kept hearing it over and over again. Carter had never gotten a stupid job! Then again what had she expected? A full apology? HA! That was funny! No, it didn't matter; they'd be in Aruba or the Bahamas or somewhere like that in a week. And she wouldn't be going with them, not if they paid her. She would stay here and go to work to keep from being bored, and she would have the house to herself again. She now looked forward to that day more than ever.

They were never around. They had never been around. She was used to it. Why had she expected this to be any different? She couldn't answer that question. She shouldn't have. She shouldn't have been so surprised that they were home. She should have gone straight to her room and not stopped to talk to them. Did she really expect them to never come back? No, not really.

Kayley pulled herself off of the bed and began to get ready to go to bed. Tomorrow she would be up before her parents, and with any luck they wouldn't be there when she got home. Whether they had left or were just out. _Yes_, she tried to comfort herself, _when I get home tomorrow they won't be here._ With that happy thought she shut off the light and went to bed.

The next day Kayley was right, she did beat her parents up. But, unfortunately they were still there, not all of the lights had been extinguished. It might have been funny in a more normal house hold that the child was more responsible than the parents, but Kayley didn't think it was very funny, as she extinguished the majority of the first floor candles.

That night when she got home her parents were still there.


	3. Chapter 3: Across the Ocean

**Two years later at a meeting: **The minister cleared his throat before he started talking. Kayley was at a meeting for the heads of the departments, she usually didn't go to these, but Mrs. Kipling had invited her. Usually Mrs. Kipling went by herself and filled Kayley in later. Kayley didn't understand why she had to come. She thought that it was easier to just let Mrs. Kipling go by herself, but she wasn't going to argue with the elderly lady. Mrs. Kipling had made it sound like it was a very important meeting. She had worn a robe today, as she usually did for meetings, but this one was one of her nicest. She had started wearing muggle skirt suits, and other business looking muggle clothes after the first week.

"Now," said the minister, "I have an announcement to make." The minister said, easily holding everyone's attention. The war in England had been really heating up recently, the death rate was staggering. Everyone in the room was wondering if the announcement had anything to do with it. "Mrs. Kipling has decided to retire." There were sighs and groans of protest. "She has recommended Miss Daniels to take her position." The minister continued. Kayley felt the blood rush to her face and she suddenly felt hot, and slightly nauseous. "I thought it would better to hire someone with more experience, but after reviewing Miss Daniels' work I think she'll do a fine job. Mrs. Kipling has graciously agreed to stay on for a little longer as Miss Daniels' advisor." He finished. Kayley felt rather overwhelmed. There were several people in her department that had wanted that job.

The minister then went on with the usual business. "England has requested back up. I have been considering what to do. Miss Daniels, your assignment is to go down there and visit the ministry, and bring back a report. I will discuss details with you after the meeting." Then he gave out other jobs that he had.

Mrs. Kipling left as soon as the meeting was over. Kayley almost followed her, but then she remembered that she was supposed to hang back. She was still stunned. She was the department head. That was almost at the top of the ladder, if something happened to the minister, she was know eligible for the job- and she had only worked here two years. The minister was gathering up his papers. She quickly put hers in a neat stack and stood by the chair beside the minister, while he continued to mess with his papers.

He put them into his briefcase, snapped it shut, and then turned to look at her. "Well, Miss Daniels, congratulations." He said finally. "You leave October 28, and will report to the English ministry on October 30. Do you have any questions?" He asked.

"Yes, how am I getting there?" Kayley asked.

"Apparition." The color drained from Kayley's face. What if she splinched?

"Cross continental apparition, sir?" She asked.

"Yes, you'll start your training tomorrow." He said. "You will need to report to Madam Akello. Report to me on the morning of the 28th for send-off." He said.

"Yes, sir," She said turning to leave. She opened the door to Mrs. Kipling's office, well her office, and went in. Mrs. Kipling was cleaning out her desk.

"What are you doing?" Kayley asked, frowning.

"Cleaning out your desk," She said.

"I don't want it, what will you use?" Mrs. Kipling pointed at Kayley's desk.

"Why don't you want it? It's a very nice desk." Mrs. Kipling pointed out.

"Because it's _your_ desk," Kayley said, feeling exasperated.

"No, it's your desk, besides, I want that one it's, newer." Mrs. Kipling said with a smirk.

"Why are you retiring?" Kayley asked.

"Shorter hours," Kayley sat on the edge of her new desk and stared at her favorite picture on the wall. "It's you're room now, you can change it if you want, you know."

"No, I don't want to." Kayley answered, not taking her eyes off of the picture. "Do you really think I can do this?" Kayley asked.

"Yes," Mrs. Kipling told her, looking at her for the first time. She picked up her box and carried it over to her new desk. Kayley slid off of the desk.

"I'll be right back." Kayley said.

"Okay, but you don't have to tell me." Mrs. Kipling said. Kayley wasn't sure why, but this annoyed her. She shut the door behind her after glancing Mrs. Kipling cleaning out her desk for her.

Kayley turned into the bathroom, and went straight to the mirror. She had worn a clip today, and it was driving her crazy, she always ran her fingers through her hair when she was nervous, exasperated, thoughtful, or just bored. She pulled the clip out and then looked around trying to figure out what to do with it. She took out her wand and transfigured it into a safety pin. Then she pinned it to the inside of her sleeve. She looked into the mirror. She had a crease. Kayley ran her hand through her hair several times and finally got rid of it. She exited the bathroom and walked down. She kept her eyes forward as she passed Nichelle, the secretary's desk. She had warmed up—a little, but they were still by no means friends. She kept walking down the hall until she came to a door with a gold number seven on it. She raised her fist to knock and then lost her nerve. She instead dragged her hand through her hair. Then realizing how stupid she must look resolved to knock on the door. There was a muffled 'come in' and Kayley opened the door and walked in. There sat her uncle at his desk going through some papers, he didn't look up, but Kayley could tell that he knew that it was her. She walked over and flopped herself in the chair across from his desk,

"Congratulations." He said still not looking up. So he knew.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," She said, looking at the floor. He put the papers down and looked up.

"Did you not want the job, Kay?" He asked. She shrugged. After a few minutes when he didn't say anything she looked back up.

"I don't know. I don't know if I wanted it. I'd never thought about it. I don't even know if I can do it. Mrs. Kipling was always here when I got here and I always left before she did. Now it's supposed to be the other way around, it's weird."

"If you didn't want the job, how did you get it?" He asked.

"Mrs. Kipling recommended me." Kayley said.

"Well, then she must think that you can do it." He said.

"I guess." Kayley said looking back down at the floor. "She said she did." She continued to stare at the floor some more. "Do you think I can do it?"

"Yes, but it doesn't matter what I think. Do you think you can do it?"

"I don't know." She said thoughtfully. "I guess we'll find out." She said standing up. "Thanks, Uncle Evan." She said turning to leave.

"Kay?" He said. She turned around

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you come over for dinner tonight? I'm sure that your Aunt Kya would want to celebrate with you." He said.

Kayley smiled. "I'll be there."

The next day Kayley wore a pant suit to work, with her hair pulled into a clip. First thing when she got there she was supposed to see Madam Akello for her apparition lesson. She walked into her office; hoops lined the wall, Kayley knew what they were for, she had used them during her first apparition lessons. Madam Akello walked in. When she saw Kayley she smiled warmly, and extended her hand. She was a strict looking woman, with a strong face, and tanned skin. She looked between thirty and forty, and had the appearance of a mean school teacher. She was wearing a brown skirt suit, and her black hair was mounted on her head in a tight bun.

Kayley took the madam's hand with a forced smile. They let go almost immediately. Madam Akello strode across the room to her desk. She picked up a clip board and slipped her glasses onto her face. "How far have you apparated before?" Madam Akello asked.

"Not very far," Kayley said. Madam Akello looked annoyed.

"Okay, starting today, we're going to exercise. It won't be easy; I want you to apparate two hundred miles today three times a day. You'll want to drop out of work for a while. The minister knows. Mrs. Kipling will be able to handle it while you're training. The minister should have given me more time." Madam Akello looked annoyed at the last sentence. "Add two hundred miles every day, go east, and report to me in five days, after you reach Atlantic City, New Jersey. You're dismissed."

"Yes, ma'am," Kayley said, feeling like she was back in school.

After Kayley reached Atlantic City the training got more vigorous. She was now supposed to apparate onto a boat out in the middle of the ocean, and she was so tired after apparating that if she missed the target it could be deadly. Kayley rarely did much during these training days; she got up, apparated, disapparated, took a nap, and then did it again. She was often too tired to eat.

October twenty- seventh was Kayley's last training day. She went home and slept. It was the hardest training day yet. Kayley was exhausted, and she had to go farther tomorrow.

The next morning it was raining steadily. Kayley got up barely in time to have breakfast. She probably wouldn't have had time to eat breakfast, except that Lucky made her get up. Lucky also packed her trunk for her, and Kayley had banished it to her room at the pub that she was staying at before she left.

She had a nice welcoming reception from Mrs. Kipling, who had made her banana nut bread. She accepted it happily, even though she shouldn't have. It was harder to apparate if she had just eaten. She was nervous- she was just sure that she was going to splinch. "I'm sure you'll do fine, dear. I'm glad that they are sending you, and not me." Mrs. Kipling said.

"Thanks" Kayley said half- heartedly, as she glanced at the clock. "I'd better go."

"Have fun and be careful," Mrs. Kipling (who had walked Kayley to the minister's office) said. Kayley nodded and went in. The minister and Mrs. Akello were both there.

"Ready?" Asked the minister. Kayley nodded and closed her eyes.

"Hold it!" Mrs. Akello said. Kayley and Minister Kayshawn both looked at her. "I think it will work better outside." She explained, leading the way.

When they got outside the rain had increased. Kayley closed her eyes again. Madam Akello had showed her pictures of the alley that she was to apparate into for a while. Kayley felt like she knew every corner and rock, even though she had never been there. She did a half turn and felt the unpleasantness of apparating. When she opened her eyes she was pleasantly surprised to find herself exactly where she was supposed to be. She then closed her eyes again her head felt like it was going to explode, and she felt like she was going to faint. She stood there awhile, and gradually the pain lessened, but, by no means did it go away.

She exited the alley and went left. It was now pouring. Kayley imagined that it had at least let up at home. She was supposed to be looking for a pub called The Leaky Cauldron. She had worn jeans and a tee shirt because one, she didn't think that she'd stand out much in them, and two, she had been too tired to put on anything else. She located the pub and went in. No one was wearing muggle clothes. Kayley now felt hot, and like her head was going to explode. She felt several pairs of eyes follow her to the bar. There were scary looking people there. She was sure that she saw a hag, and that man sitting in the corner, he had to be a vampire. There was also a worn out looking man sitting at one table, he was very worn out and battered looking, and there had been a full moon last night. Could he be a werewolf? She suddenly felt uncomfortable. She focused on the bartender; he was old, and toothless. He looked really old, he was stooped slightly; he was also bald. Kayley tried her hardest not to look at anyone besides the bartender. She was soaked. She could feel her jeans, tee shirt, and hair clinging to her tightly. This only made her more uncomfortable. It would be worse if she had worn robes. She was glad that she hadn't, even if people were staring.

"Excuse me." Kayley said when she reached the bartender. He was busily scrubbing on a glass, trying to get a tiny speck off. He looked up when she spoke.

"Yes?" He asked looking her up and down.

"Umm…I think I have a room reserved here. Room fourteen?" She said uncertainly.

"Miss Kayley Daniels, from America?" He asked. She smiled slightly- she was in the right place.

"Yes, sir," She said feeling a little better. He put the glass down and grabbed a key with a simple key chain from the key holder, and stepped out from the bar.

"Follow me, please." He said leading the way up a beautiful wooden staircase. He stopped at a room with a golden fourteen screwed onto the door. He inserted the key in the lock and held the door open for her. It was a beautiful room. There was a wood panel floor, a wooden for poster bed, and a wardrobe. Her trunks sat at the foot of the bed. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." He said handing her the keys. She nodded. He shut the door behind him. She crossed the room and locked it. The people staring at her when she came in had made her really nervous; of course, the British wizarding world was at war.

Kayley unpacked her trunk and made the place more like home; after all, she was going to be there for five days, counting today. Kayley was suddenly overcome with exhaustion she undressed as quickly as possible, and extinguished the lights. Even though it was just two o'clock Kayley went right to sleep. The last thing that she heard was the pitter- patter of the rain on the window.

When Kayley woke up the clock on the bedside table read ten o'clock. Kayley groaned and rolled over to go back to sleep. The next time that she woke up the clock said that it was noon. Kayley got up, dressed, again in jeans and a tee shirt, and went down stairs to have dinner. Once again no one else was wearing muggle clothes. Kayley went up to the bar to order her lunch.

"I tried to wake you up last night, in case you wanted supper." The bartender said. Kayley gave him a small smile to show her appreciation.

"That's okay, I didn't really want supper." Kayley took her lunch back up to her room. She was too uncomfortable with all of the people staring at her. After he finished she sat her plate on the bedside table and grabbed her jacket. She picked her plate back up and started down the stairs. She met the old bartender on the way down stairs.

"I'll take that," he said reaching for the plate.

"Thank you, " Kayley said.

"Where are you going?" He asked.

"I thought that I'd go see Diagon Alley."

"I wouldn't wear that if I were you." He said pointedly.

"Umm…Okay, thanks." _I guess_ Kayley added silently to herself, heading back to her room. Since it was still raining Kayley took off her jacket and pulled her robes on over her jeans and tee. She then wrapped her cloak around her shoulders and headed out the door again. She got all the to the brick wall outside The Leaky Cauldron before realizing that she didn't know what to do. Feeling annoyed because now she was wet again, Kayley turned around and went back inside The Leaky Cauldron. The bartender was behind the bar again, now serving a customer. Kayley patiently waited.

"Thanks, Tom," the young man said turning to leave.

"Yes?" Tom asked, starting to wipe down the bar.

"Err; I don't know how to get to Diagon Alley." Kayley said, felling the color fill her pale cheeks. Tom merely looked at her. Then he led the way back outside. He started counting bricks. After he found just the right one he tapped it. An archway opened immediately, and Kayley got her first look at Diagon Alley. She thanked Tom and watched him leave. Kayley stepped into Diagon Alley. She was very impressed. There weren't any places like that were she came from. You just had to know where to go to get your supplies, and some of them you had to gather yourself. Tom had been right; no one was wearing muggle clothes. Kayley stepped onto the cobbled street and marveled at all of the shops. She decided to visit the stationary shop first. She didn't have any supplies for the next day, when she would visit the British Ministry of Magic. She spotted a stationary store and decided that that would be a good place to start. When she opened the door a man with blonde hair bumped into her.

"'Scuse me," Kayley said. The man said nothing. This annoyed Kayley, but she didn't say anything. She brushed off his rudeness, and went in. She automatically picked up a few rolls of parchment. The shop had no pens, but instead contained quills. Kayley thought that this was odd, but looked at the quills any way. There were different brands of quick quotes quill. There was a paper with directions written on it above the quills. There were test papers beside the quills. They came in packages of two or more with testers. Kayley picked up a Quick-Quotes brand quill, sucked on it for a while, and put it down on top of the pad. "My name is Kayley." She said. The quill wrote. A beautiful young girl of twenty, Kayley Daniels, with brown hair, and dark brown eyes say "My name is Kayley."

Kayley tore the paper off the pad and burned it, not at all impressed. She put the quill back in its holder, after going through almost all of the quills Kayley discovered that they were all the same with different colors and brand names. Then, she saw it, there was another quill pushed slightly to the back. Kayley sucked on it and put it onto the pad. "My name is Kayley." She said feeling tired of the sentence. The quill moved in a curly fashion on the paper. She put the quill back into its holder and read the paper. It said 'My name is Kayley.' She smiled and picked up a box of Kwik Kwotes Kwills, and went to pay for them.


	4. Chapter 4: A Deadly Fourth of July

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or anything from Harry Potter. The only thing that I own is plot and any characters that you don't recognize.

Kayley hadn't noticed it at first, but the people in Diagon Alley were acting funny. They were walking close together, as if they were scared of something that she could not see. They did not stop to talk to each other. They did not wave at each other or stop to talk. If they acknowledged each other, it was very brief. This behavior made Kayley nervous.

It had stopped raining by now. The next shop Kayley went to was Flourish and Blots. She didn't really need anything from there, but the shop attracted her. She had never bought a magic book before. To her knowledge, neither had her parents. She had never seen a bookstore with real magic books in it. Sure, she had been to Muggle Wiccan store, mostly to get potion supplies, but they didn't have real magic books. She had really old books in her library at home, but her grandparents had brought them form where ever they came from. At school they were assigned their text books, they never had their very own that they could keep. Magic books were just too hard to find, real ones anyway. The Muggles were too nosey where she came from. Kayley set to examining the books. It was wonderful, the only place she had seen this many books was her school library. Kayley gazed wonderingly at all of the books for a while before closely examining them.

There were many interesting titles. Kayley leafed through a copy of Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling. She leafed through several others. Wondering how long she had been in the shop, she looked around for something else that caught her eye. There was an old looking book shoved toward the back. The spine was so warn that you couldn't see the name. Kayley picked it up and turned to the title page it read _Magick Most Evile. _The author's name was smudged. Kayley stared at it wonderingly.

"That's a good one." Someone said- someone who was standing right behind her. Kayley snapped the book shut and wheeled around. There was a handsome blonde man with gray eyes behind her, close enough that he knew what book she had picked up. "If you like that sort of thing," He finished. Kayley turned around and placed the book back where she had found it.

"I don't think I'll buy it today." She said.

"I notice that you have an accent." He said, sounding very British.

"So what?" She asked, heading to the counter to pay for the transfiguration books that she had picked up.

"Where are you from?" He asked casually, following her.

"America." Kayley said, carelessly.

"I knew that." He said. They were almost to the counter by now.

"Then why did you ask?" She asked reaching the counter, and pulling out some money. She could tell that she was annoying him, and decided to tone it down a bit.

"I'm from Colorado." She said, as the man behind the counter sacked her purchases. She turned and followed her out of the shop.

"I see. I'm Draco Malfoy. What's your name?" He asked, politely as if trying to make conversation. Kayley turned and eyed him for a moment. She suddenly became aware that she didn't know where she was going.

"Kayley," she said perfectly aware that she hadn't stated her last name.

"Kayley what?" He asked.

"Just Kayley," She said, feeling more nervous.

"You don't have a last name?" He asked pointedly.

"I don't give it out on first meetings, _Mr. Malfoy_." She said, starting to get annoyed. She didn't know where she was going. She wondered if Diagon Alley had an end, or if one could wander it forever.

"Forgive me, I'm being nosey, and call me Draco." He said. "Can I make it up to you by buying you a drink?" He asked politely.

"I suppose." She said feeling that she really didn't have a choice. She was almost lost, and they were coming to a turn off for another alley- Knockturn Alley.

"The Leaky Cauldron is this way." He said, turning.

Kayley executed an about face. "Of course it is." She said forcing a smile, and feeling stupid, he was really handsome.

They got to The Leaky Cauldron, and went up to the bar. Tom looked up from whatever he was doing and promptly rushed to take their order.

"Yes, Mister Malfoy?" He asked. So, Draco Malfoy apparently wasn't lying about his name.

"I'll have a scotch." He said just as promptly as Tom had come over. While this was going on, she had noticed that Tom had called her companion 'Mister Malfoy," and she hoped really hard that he wouldn't call her Miss Daniels. Tom turned to Kayley.

"And for you?" He asked.

"Umm," Kayley said. She had had wine at her parents' banquets when she was younger, but she had no idea what was considered 'hard liquor' and had no intentions of getting drunk. "I'd like iced tea, please." Kayley said. Draco and Tom both looked at her funny. Draco's scotch came first, and then Tom brought out a teacup and placed it on the bar. He told Draco the price, and Draco gave him the money. Kayley looked into the teacup, inspecting the tea. It was iced tea all right- iced tea in a teacup! Kayley pressed her lips together firmly to keep from laughing.

"Thank you." She said to Tom, smiling. Draco led her to an empty table. He looked about Carter's age. She sipped the tea. It wasn't very good, but it was okay.

"Thank you." She said.

"So, what are you doing here? Are you on vacation?" He asked, eying her tea with disgust. He was looking at it as if it was something slimy that had crawled out from under a rock

"No, I'm here on business." She said.

"Business? What kind of business?" He asked, dragging his eyes from the tea to look at her. Kayley shrugged as she took a sip of her tea. He finally said something that pulled her into a conversation, but almost as soon as it started he said he had to go, and left. Kayley got up to go back to her room and realized that they had been talking for over an hour.

It was now raining harder than ever. Kayley put her hand on the windowpane, trying to gage the temperature. It was room temperature. She moved her hand to the glass. It was cool, very cool, cold even. Kayley pushed it open. She felt the cool rain splash her face. She closed her eyes and enjoyed it for a while. It was nice when you were inside, and the rain was outside, and you could control how wet you get. After a few minutes, Kayley shut the window, took a shower, and went to bed.

The next morning it was still raining. _Will it ever stop? _Kayley asked herself, as she pulled on her robes. It looked cold, so she wore her jeans and a tee shirt under them once again. Since this was business, and tennis shoes weren't appropriate. So she wore black heals with her robes. She quickly gathered up her parchment and quill purchases that she had made the day before. She swept the room one last time to make sure that she hadn't forgotten something. Kayley didn't leave her room to Apparate. She just Apparated to the phone booth that she had seen pictures of for the last month.

Kayley looked around the inside of the phone booth; she was surprised that she was able to Apparate to the inside of the phone booth. She dialed six, two, four, four, and two. "Welcome to the Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business." The telephone booth said in a cold female voice.

"Kayley Daniels. I'm here to converse with the Minister and personnel regarding current events pertaining to the war." Kayley said professionally.

"Thank you. Visitor, please take the badge and attach it to the front of your robes." The phone booth said. There was a clink and a badge appeared in the phone booth. It said Kayley Daniels International Relationships- American Division. "Visitor to the Ministry, you are required to submit to a search and present your wand for registration at the security desk, which is located at the far end of the Atrium." Kayley then felt the phone booth drop.

"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day," Said the phone booth. Kayley found the Atrium easily. Kayley walked up to the security desk. "I'm here on business from the American Ministry." Kayley said.

"Step over here," Said the security wizard. He used a thin, long golden rod to scan Kayley's front and back.

"Wand, please." Kayley gave him her wand. He placed it in the wand machine. It vibrated and then stopped just as suddenly as it had started. The wizard scratched his head. He picked up Kayley's wand and set it back in the dish. It vibrated again, but almost immediately stopped. He picked it up and started examining it, turning it over slowly in his hands. "Where did you get this wand?" He asked, not looking up.

"From Evangels' Wand Shop," Kayley said.

"Where's that at?" He asked, still looking at the wand slowly.

"Boulder, Colorado, in America," Kayley answered.

"Ah, there's the problem." He said, handing her back her wand. "Machine doesn't like foreign wands."

Not knowing what else to do, Kayley stepped onto the elevator. She wasn't sure which level to get off at, but she figured that if she missed it she could just ride it again. After three floors, Kayley decided to get off on level five: Department of International Magical Cooperation.

Kayley stepped off of the elevator and was once again at a loss as to what to do. There was a tallish, bushy-haired girl with a large stack of papers down the hall. Kayley stepped into step and followed her. "Excuse me," She said imploringly. The girl, well really a woman, she looked about twenty-five, older than Kayley, turned around.

"Yes?" She asked, looking puzzled.

"I'm not sure where to go. I'm here from America for a meeting…" The woman's eyes lit up understandingly.

"Oh, I expected you to be older, well, not that you're young, but…" she dropped off, blushing. She held out her hand to shake, and Kayley took it. "You're looking for me, I'm Hermione Weasley." She said.

"Nice to meet you," Kayley said business like.

"Follow me," Mrs. Weasley said. Kayley followed her to a nice office, and took a seat in front of her desk after depositing her cloak on a hook in the corner.

"Was there anything specific that you wanted to discuss or see?" Mrs. Weasley asked shuffling some papers.

"Well, yes." Kayley said getting to the point. "I would like to see your defense methods; hear what you're doing for the war effort, hear your plans for the future, and what you would like us to do about it." Kayley hated that sentence. It sounded so snobby, but that was what the Minister and the rest of the country for that matter wanted to know. Ms Weasley's smile faltered for a moment and then it was back.

"Let's start with a tour." Mrs. Weasley said, standing up.

"Fine," Kayley said brightly, she was interested in seeing the English Ministry. Mrs. Weasley led her back to the elevator. Kayley dug out her parchment and Kwick Kwotes Kwill, and charmed them to float beside her.

"Level four: The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures." They stepped of. As Mrs. Weasley gave the tour, she told Kayley what they were doing about the werewolf problem and their plans for the future.

"We're especially having problems with one particular werewolf, Fenrir Greyback. We're not quite sure what to do about him. Every time someone sets out to capture him they end up dead…or worse." Mrs. Weasley said with a shutter.

"Yes, I know about him." Kayley said.

"Do you?" Mrs. Weasley asked with interest.

"Yes, I did a profile on him a few years ago."

"Then you know he's on the top of the list for werewolf attacks.

"Yes," Kayley said.

"What are you doing about the vampires?" Kayley asked.

"They haven't been very active." Mrs. Weasley said earnestly. Kayley nodded, willing to take her word for it.

"And the giants?" Kayley asked. Mrs. Weasley looked a bit shamefaced.

"The giants are a bit of a problem. We're not sure how to deal with them." Mrs. Weasley said, she sounded worried

"I heard rocks work well," Kayley joked. Mrs. Weasley gave her a small smile. They stepped back onto the elevator.

"Level three Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes," The elevator said. Kayley and Mrs. Weasley stepped off and the tour commenced. Half way through the tour of the Invisibility Task Force section, the artificial lights flickered and went off. There was a flash of green light that zipped past Kayley's ear.

"_Lumos_." Mrs. Weasley said. Her wand was lit to reveal loads of Death Eaters everywhere. Kayley quickly took out her wand and started sending stunning spells everywhere. There were other curses going around too. There were so many killing curses going around that Kayley gave up on shields and dodged. Curses of many colors flew around. People were dying everywhere. It almost looked like fireworks, like a deadly Fourth of July. Kayley dodged a stunning curse, and almost ran into a killing curse. She dodged something blue, and something orange, all the while shooting stunning spells at the Death Eaters. She knew that it wouldn't work. There were too many of them. They were out numbered to badly.

Kayley felt a stunning curse graze her shoulder. Her whole left side of her body hurt, and than went numb. It slowed her down badly. She tried more stunning spells while looking for cover, somewhere to hide, some way out, anything. She saw a flash of green light coming right at her. She jumped out of the way, right into a stunning spell. She felt herself hit the concrete of the floor right before she went out.


	5. Chapter 5: Captured

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or anything from Harry Potter. The only thing that I own is plot and any characters that you don't recognize.

Kayley regained consciousness momentarily. She couldn't see anything, just blackness, spinning blackness. Almost as soon as she woke up, she went out again. The next time she woke up, she did not slip back into unconsciousness.

Her whole body hurt, like she had fallen off of a very high building. She sat up and looked around, her sore muscles and joints ached with every millimeter she moved, though it didn't matter, she couldn't see anything. There was no light in the room. None.

She was laying on something; she could tell that she was off of the floor. Kayley placed her hand underneath her and felt what she was lying on. It was made of wood she thought. It was room temperature and hard. Kayley looked around but didn't get up. She was still too tired to get up. Her head throbbed. It was one of the worst headaches that she had ever had.

Her eyes felt unfocused. Everything was black. She could tell that she was in a room. If she was outside there would be stars. There were no windows. Kayley wondered if there was even a door. There was no light that looked like it came from around a doorframe.

After a while, Kayley felt ready to get up. She gingerly placed her weight on both of her legs separately. She was suddenly wishing that she hadn't left her cloak in Hermione's office- the room was freezing. It was almost unreal how cold the room was. Kayley placed her hands on the wall to steady herself and immediately wished that she hadn't. The wall was colder than the room Kayley could feel that it was made of stone and cement.

She started walking around the perimeter of the room, guiding by her hands and the wall. She came to a corner and turned, the texture of the wall never changed. Then she came to another corner. In the middle of this wall the texture changed. It felt like a metal. Kayley followed it with her hands to the floor.

There was a carpet or something between the metal and the floor. She stood back up and felt the sides. It was a huge metal door, and she could feel no handle so the room did have a door. Kayley followed the wall to another corner and then in the middle of the wall she ran in to the bench.

Kayley sat back down. She now knew several things, although none of them were any use. She was in a square shaped room. It was made of stones cemented together, and there was a metal door on one side. The floor was rock too, but not made up of several smaller rocks, possibly concrete.

Kayley pulled her knees up to her chest and leaned back on the wall. She was sorry that she had not worn her tennis shoes and that she had left her cloak back at the Ministry. She really wished that she had worn almost anything besides her heels, her feet were freezing. She pulled her robes closer to her body, glad that she had decided to wear Muggle clothes under it.

She stuck her hands in her pockets, trying to warm them and then she remembered the notes she had taken at the Ministry. She was sure that she had put them in her pocket. They weren't there now. "Shit!" She cursed out loud, infuriated with herself, and there was nothing she could do about it. Where were they now? She hoped that they had fallen out of her pocket at the ministry, but she had a feeling that they had been purposely removed.

She wondered if she should try Apparating. She knew that it wouldn't work, but what if she tried? Was it even possible that it might work? Where was she anyway? Kayley stood back up. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the alley that she had Apparated to first. She did her half turn and then felt a powerful shock. It knocked her to the floor.

Kayley pulled her self back up and stumbled over to the bench. She now was sorer, she hadn't thought that that was possible, but apparently it was. She eased her poor sore body back up onto the bench. It was very uncomfortable. After a long while of boredom and soreness, Kayley passed into an uneasy, restless sleep.

After what seemed like a very long time, Kayley wandered what time it was. She had been in there so long that she had lost track of time, and that thought made her sick. She was also very hungry. It felt like she had been there forever, and she hadn't eaten since breakfast on the day that she had gone to the ministry. She had decided after (possibly) hours of restless napping that she should get up and walk around the perimeter of her cell, for that was what she had decided that it was. She was right, as much as it hurt, it helped. It helped her feel warmer too.

Kayley's senses were heightened after being in the cell for a while. She could make out the shape of the bench when she looked at it from the opposite side of the room, and had decided that there was nothing else to see. She had started having trouble sleeping because every noise the wind made by blowing through the cracks woke her up.

Kayley was lying on the bench. Where was she? Was it possible that she was at the Death Eater headquarters? Did they even have headquarters? Was this where Mr. Ollivander and Florean Fortescue went after they disappeared?

Kayley was surprised when she heard strange noise. It sounded like metal scraping something. "Who's in here, Malcolm?" Inquired a strangely familiar male voice.

"No one knows, Master Malfoy. It's a female prisoner, but no one seems to have seen her before." Malcolm (Kayley suspected) said. There was a thin line of light growing, and coming into Kayley's cell. She sat up straight, not knowing what to expect. She was momentarily scared. She worked frantically to calm herself.

"Where did she come from?" asked the first male.

"The ministry, sir," Malcolm said. "During the raid on Saturday," Two men were framed in the doorway. The light blinded Kayley. She hadn't seen light in… who knows how long. She willed her eyes to focus quickly, but had a feeling that it wasn't going to work. They were both in now. Neither shut the door.

"Come into the light." Malcolm said. Kayley walked as slowly as was as appropriate to buy her eyes time to focus, and as gracefully as possible.

The taller man was about six inches taller than Kayley and the shorter was about two inched shorter than the other man. Kayley stood in front of the taller man. He seemed to be the one in charge. She focused on his chest; she didn't want to look at his face if she couldn't see him. Then, mere seconds after stopping she miraculously regained her vision to confidently look him in the face. She let her gaze and not her head travel slowly up to his face. He had brilliant grey eyes that were familiar. A Death Eater mask obscured the rest of his face.

She had pictures of all of the men that were Death Eaters and on file in her office. She had guessed that if she ever met one the only thing she would be able to see would be his eyes and, likewise, had memorized all of the Death Eater eyes. This man was not in her files. This was some one that she knew, but who did she know that could even possibly be a Death Eater?

"Draco?" It was purely a question and not in the slightest a statement. Apparently, she was right though, because Malcolm raised his wand. Kayley closed her eyes, bracing herself for the worst, but Draco was faster. He pushed Malcolm's hand down almost immediately.

"Wait outside." He said evenly to Malcolm. Malcolm clumsily heaved the metal door shut behind him. "_Incendio._" Draco said coolly. Sconces that lined the wall suddenly light up. They were out of Kayley's reach, and she hadn't noticed them. Her eyes adjusted quickly this time. When she had finished admiring the sconces, she returned her gaze to Draco. He hadn't moved at all. "Do you think that you could tell me your surname now?" he asked calmly.

"Daniels." Kayley said. She wasn't sure, but she thought that something had flickered for a moment across his emotionless face.

"Daniels." He repeated pensively. He seemed to think about it for a while. While he was thinking about it, Kayley looked at the door. She was right, it had no handle, and she wondered for a second how Draco was going to get out. "Let's go." He said suddenly, grabbing her elbow. He tapped the door with his wand and it opened easily.

"Master Malfoy?" Malcolm asked falling into step behind them.

"You're dismissed, Malcolm." Draco said, not even turning around. They weren't walking too fast, Kayley wasn't having any trouble keeping up, but they weren't going slow either. They went down several winding corridors and up four staircases. They all looked the same; the same stonewall, with its concrete floors and huge metal doors on every side.

They came to a plain, mildly dirty white hall that led to a large wooded door. There was a man standing behind the counter selling stuff. Most of it looked like dark artifacts. There were several glass jars filled with metal rings.

"Mr. Malfoy!" called the merchant. "Would you like to buy a ring?"

"Not today, Demos." Draco said, guiding Kayley out the door. They stepped out of the building into a forest. Draco led Kayley through the trees to a small clearing a ways away from the building. Before Kayley could stop him or even know what he was doing, he wrapped his arms around her waist and did a little half turn. Kayley felt the familiar sensation of Apparation, and it terrified her.

Double Apparation increases your chances of splinching by eighty percent. Kayley had splinched once during Apparation lessons, and it hurt like no other. She was terrified. Kayley slowly pressed herself closer to Draco so that she wouldn't fall out of the invisible tube that they were traveling in. She also tried to be as still as possible.

Suddenly she felt her feet hit something solid. "WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?" Kayley yelled. "WE COULD HAVE SPLINCHED! DO YOU KNOW HOW BAD THAT HURTS?" He said nothing.

She didn't even realize that they were at a house until he opened the door and motioned for her to go in. Then she realized that she was standing on the threshold of a beautiful mansion. Kayley stepped inside and then slowed her pace so that he could go in front of her, since she didn't know where she was going.

She followed him to the first sitting room. This house was older than hers, but was very similarly built. He started undoing his cloak, and out of nowhere came a young girl, she couldn't be older than twenty. She had blonde hair that was pinned up into a tight bun. She was wearing a black work robe, and was wearing a metal ring on her right hand. He handed her his cloak and she swept out the way that they had come in.

"Nora!" He called. He didn't call for her loudly, and Kayley thought that she must be near. After a small while, a tall, thin brunette woman entered the room. She looked older than Kayley, but not thirty yet. She was also wearing her hair in a firm bun, and was wearing black robes. Kayley tried to see her right hand, but her hands were behind her back, and she was standing at attention.

"Yes, Master Draco?" She asked. Kayley could tell that she was trying not to look at her.

"Please take Miss Kayley up to one of the guest rooms on the third floor." He said, looking bored.

"Yes, sir," She said, and then she turned to Kayley. "This way, Miss." Nora said turning back to the hallway that she came out of. They went up three flights of stairs and turned left down a hall at the top of the third staircase. The more of the mansion Kayley saw, the more she liked it. Nora pushed open a door at the end of the hallway. Kayley went in first and was very impressed with the room. It was very subtle. The walls were a light blue and the room only contained a four-poster bed, a vanity dresser, and a regular dresser.

"I'll wash your clothes, Miss, there's a bathroom over there." She said pointing to a door that Kayley hadn't noticed before. "There should be a dressing robe in there, and then you can take a shower."

Kayley pushed open the door, located the bathrobe, and then began to undress. While she was doing that, she caught a glance at herself in the mirror. She was instantly embarrassed. Her hair was clinging to her shoulders and was very greasy, and she could see dirt smears on her face. She stepped out of the bathroom and handed Nora her clothes.

Kayley watched her right hand, but the clothes covered it. Nora fumbled with the bundle momentarily, and Kayley's jeans fell out. Nora picked them quickly.

"Master Draco won't like this." Nora said fingering the material. Kayley's eyes automatically narrowed.

"Do you have to tell him?" Her voice was hard, but not mean.

Nora looked startled. "Well, no Miss, I suppose not, not unless he asked."

"Thanks." Kayley said, still rather coolly. Nora turned to go, and Kayley went back into the bathroom.

There was no soap in the shower, so she looked by the sink. To Kayley's surprise the first cabinet that she opened held her brand of shampoo, conditioner, and body soap. She gathered them up and got into the shower.

Afterwards, Kayley could honestly say that that was the best shower that she had ever had. She put the bathrobe back on, and started combing out her hair. She started looking through the different drawers and cabinets out of curiosity. They never had the same thing in them, unless she was thinking about it.

She found some quick dry for her hair in one drawer, and some potion to make your hair wavy and give it volume in another. Kayley tried them and had to admit that it looked nice. She stepped back out into the guest room, trying to decide what to do now. Nora was not back with her clothes yet. Kayley rifled through the drawers on the vanity, and decided to start putting on make up.

After Kayley finished putting blush on Nora came in with her clothes. When she handed her the clothes Kayley saw a metal ring on her finger.

Kayley put her jeans and t-shirt on under her robes much to Nora's argument.

"Master Draco wants you at dinner in forty minutes." Nora said while Kayley pulled her shoes back on. Then she went to the mirror to finish her make up. "I think you'll like it here." Nora said as Kayley applied mascara.

"I'm not planning on being here that long." Kayley said, adjusting her collar.

"I'm afraid that Master Draco would like you to stay a while. It will be okay, once you get used to it." Nora said. She sounded like she was choosing her words carefully, as if she was afraid to upset Kayley.

"We'll see." Kayley said composedly, smoothing out the wrinkles in her robe.

"You'll get a new room tonight- probably close to mine. I think we'll get to be great friends." Nora said. She sounded happier now. "It's nice here." Kayley didn't say anything. "Let's go." Nora said after a while as she stood up.

Kayley followed her to a grand dining room. The table looked like it used to be much bigger and had been shrunk magically. Draco was already seated. He stood when she came in, and waited 'till she was seated before he sat back down. Kayley calmed down slightly. She was use to formality, and it felt familiar to her. Nora stood beside another girl who was dressed just like her. Food started magically appearing on the table. A red headed girl poured wine into Kayley's glass and then Draco's.

Kayley did every thing perfectly. She sat up straight, took small bites, and sipped her wine. When her parents had dinner parties she had always been limited to one glass of wine. After going to a few parties thrown by her friends in her last years of school, Kayley saw the wisdom in this particular rule.

"You must be starving." Draco said after a little while. "Please feel free to take larger bites." Kayley looked up momentarily from the piece of meat she was cutting.

"I will not." Her parents had taught her well enough how to act in a setting like that. They taught her that much before they decided that she could take care of herself and started exploring the world. He smirked.

"Have you got any siblings?" He asked. She paused again to look at him. She was searching him, trying to read him and it wasn't working.

"Why do you want to know?" She asked suspiciously.

He shrugged, "Just curious."

"I have one, an older brother." She said impassively.

"His name is?" He inquired, keeping his voice equally unemotional. Kayley decided to tell him. After all what could he do with the information?

"Car- Jacob," Kayley said catching herself in time. "Jacob Daniels," He merely nodded. "I'm missing some important papers." Kayley said changing the subject. "Do you know where they are?"

"The Dark Lord has them." Draco said coolly. Great, now she was officially screwed.

"I'd like to be gone by tomorrow afternoon. I need my wand back." Kayley said. Draco looked surprised, but only for a second.

"You're wand was destroyed, and I believe that you work for the Ministry, in the section that deals with destroying Death Eaters." He said. Kayley felt sick, her wand that she had since she was eight was gone.

"I work for the American Ministry. We keep profiles on Death Eaters, but have not decided to help with the war. We are currently establishing what they're up against and then we'll vote on it." She said; the sickness had not passed yet.

"And how do you think the outcome of the vote will be." This question surprised Kayley.

She thought for a moment. "I'm not sure." She said after a while. "Britain has helped us several times before, but this new Dark Lord is much more powerful than the last. He killed the man who killed Lord Voldemort. That scares most members of the Ministry, and they're afraid that if we help he could come after us next."

"And he would." Draco said certainly. "If you go home, what's going to stop you from giving me a profile?" That was a good question. Kayley hadn't thought about work at all, except for the possibility that she would get fired when she came back without the notes. She ate in silence for a long while trying to come up with a good answer.

"I won't, if you let me go home." She said finally. She didn't like throwing the 'let' into the sentence. It gave him more control than she wanted him to have, but, realistically, he did have more power over her than she wanted him to have. He said nothing for a while. Kayley decided that that was a good thing. At least he was thinking about it.

"How do I know that?" He asked.

"You'll just have to trust me." She said, liking this answer less than the last one.

Why should he believe her? It looked like she was screwed worse than she thought.

The red headed girl who had served the wine came back in and refilled Draco's glass. Then she came over to Kayley. Kayley hadn't realized that her glass was empty until the girl was trying to pour wine into it. "No," Kayley said abruptly,

"Water, please." The girl gave her a curt nod and turned back the way she came.

The red headed girl came back out with Kayley's glass of water before Draco answered. "Surely the American Ministry knows what happened by now." Draco said. "What are you going to tell them when you show up?" Kayley looked up at him again, this time confident in her answer.

"What do you want me to tell them?" She asked.

"It's late." Draco said after awhile. "Are you finished?" He asked, meaning with her supper.

"Yes." She said.

"Nora, take Miss Kayley to the guest room on the fifth floor in the second left hall." Nora stirred from her post, now attentive.

"The fifth floor, sir?" She asked uncertain that she had heard him correctly.

"That's what I said." Draco replied coolly.

"This way, Miss." Nora said.


	6. Chapter 6: Blackmail

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or anything from Harry Potter. The only thing that I own is plot and any characters that you don't recognize.

This room was much more beautiful. It was painted beautiful reds, pinks, and oranges. It looked like the room was in a perpetual sunset. Kayley was impressed that it was decorated with furniture made out of serpentwood. It was the best she had ever seen. "There are night clothes in the closet. Good night, miss." Nora said, shutting the door behind her. She did not seem in as good of a mood as she had been earlier. There were two doors in the room. After a short inspection, Kayley discovered that one led to a closet, and the other led to a profligately furnished bathroom. Kayley was surprised to see that this bath had ten more scents than her parent's best bathroom. The room smelled good: It smelled like freshly pealed oranges and lemons and other fruits.

Kayley went over to the closet to see what kind of clothes were in it. She found that none of them were to her taste. Kayley turned the sheets down on the bed. She couldn't wait to try it out after all that time she had spent in the cold, damp, cell. Now that she thought about it, this room was kind of cold. As Kayley stood up from turning down the sheets, she noticed a clock on the bedside table. It read ten thirty. It had been dark when they left the Death Eater Headquarters, but she had not realized that it was that late. Kayley quietly undressed, leaving on her t-shirt. She had decided to sleep in it tonight. Kayley carefully folded the rest of her Muggle clothes under her robes.

She blew out the candles in the beautifully decorated sconces and climbed into the bed. There was no doubt that this sleep would be the best she had ever had. Especially after sleeping on that hard bench. Kayley's body warmed slowly under the bedclothes. Her nose felt like ice, and she now wished that she hadn't blown out the candles. She flexed her fingers, feeling how cold they were when they hit her palm. She finally decided that this was stupid. She stumbled out of the bed and clumsily dressed in the dark. She thought for a moment and shoved her exposed Muggle clothes under the bed. Kayley opened the door and stepped out into the hall. _Great_. _Which way did she come from on the way up here?_ Kayley haphazardly picked the one on the right. She hoped that she would run into Nora or another servant. She didn't touch anything, and kept an eye out for any one. After walking for a while, Kayley was starting to get nervous. This mansion was just like hers- it was a giant maze! The only difference was that she knew the way around her maze, but not Mr. Malfoy's. Kayley suddenly stopped. This was ridiculous. She started backtracking, until she came to a four-way corner. _Great, now which way did she come from?_ Kayley stood in the middle of the four ways for a while contemplating which way to go.

"Are you looking for something?" Kayley's muscles tensed briefly then relaxed again. She turned to face the man who had addressed her.

"Yes, actually," She said, he looked at her questioningly. "I was looking for you." She said forcing a small smile, "Or one of your servants." He said nothing, so she continued. "It's quite cold in my room, and I was wondering if you might have an extra blanket."

"Follow me." He said, picking the hall of the ones Kayley was pondering. He stopped outside of a door that looked very familiar. It only took Kayley a second to realize that they were standing outside the guest room she was staying in. There was a small wooden door in the wall at about eye level. Draco opened it to reveal a small cupboard that was filled with blankets. He took down the top one, turned to the door and went into the guest room.

"_Incendio_" Draco said and at once all of the candles that Kayley had blown out came back on. "Why didn't you light the fireplace?" He asked after he sat the blanket down on the bed.

"Um, I don't know how to start a fire without a wand." She said uncertainly.

"I forgot." He said nonchalantly "Would you like me to start one?" He asked.

"Yes, that would be nice." She said.

"Do you want one that won't run out of wood, or one that runs out of wood after a while?"

"One that runs out of wood," She said. He pointed his wand at the fireplace and flames sprang up, dancing merrily.

"If you need another blanket you know where they are now. Good night." He said. Kayley didn't have time to reply before he was gone. She spread the blanket over the bed and once again blew out the candles. She slipped beneath the sheets once again, and this time she got warm after, but couldn't go to sleep. Her mind kept running over the events that had taken place after she left home. Finally, Kayley was able to clear her mind and after a while and fell asleep.

"Miss Kayley!"

"Umph…"

"Miss Kayley, please get up!"

Kayley opened her eyes to see Nora standing over her, looking exasperated. Kayley blinked a few times and then yawned.

"Time's it?" She asked groggily.

"Almost noon," Kayley rolled over to go back to sleep.

"Miss Kayley get up!" Nara said. "Master Malfoy waited breakfast on you, and now it is time for lunch! He said to get you up."

"Fine!" Kayley said sitting up. "Why don't you leave so that I can get dressed?" She suggested. Nora left the room. Kayley half fell out of the bed. The fireplace was out, and it was a little cold in the room. Kayley dropped down to her hands and knees to retrieve the clothes that she had shoved under the bed. She put the clothes from under the bed on the bed and then went to get her robe that was folded on the chair. When she turned back to the bed she saw her trunk setting at the foot of the bed. Kayley smiled to herself. She stuffed the clothes that she had worn the day before into the trunk and dug out some clean ones. She put Muggle clothes on under her robes to help keep out the cold. She used her make up from her trunk instead of the make up that would surely appear in the drawers of the vanity.

Nora led her down stairs like she had done the previous night. They passed a wide window and Kayley saw why she had been so cold last night. It was beautiful, just like a painting; the grounds were covered with snow. Soon they had made their way to their destination. The dining room and table looked just like they had the previous night, except now they were adorned with lunch items. Kayley regally seated herself in the same seat that she had occupied last night. Draco stood for her again.

"What would you like to drink, miss?" The same redheaded girl asked.

"Iced-- water." Kayley said catching herself before she said 'tea'.

"Finally, I'd feared that you'd died." Draco sneered.

"I must have reverted to my time after spending all that time in the dark." Kayley said demurely. He made no comment and seemed eager to get on with business.

"I've decided what you should say." He paused as if waiting for her to comment. She had no comment and was eager to hear what he had to say. She had bean pondering that very question while she had lain awake last night, and was interested in his answer. Her silence was enough of a sign to go on. "You will tell them that you were staying with someone and it was unsafe to come out of hiding or make contact." There were many problems with this answer, but nothing that Kayley didn't think she could handle. She surely would be quick witted enough to come up with some response when they ask with whom she was staying.

"Fine." Kayley said it was way better than anything she had come up with.

"Now onto the next issue-- the issue of payment." Kayley almost spat out the water that she was in the middle of drinking.

"WHAT PAYMENT?" Kayley emitted.

"The payment for saving your life and letting you leave." He said evenly.

"For saving my life?" Kayley could not believe what she was hearing. "Ohh, well then, let's hear it! I owe you ever_ sooo _much!" She didn't even try to keep the sarcasm out of her voice and then realized that she had lost her cool.

"You are coming to London again?" He didn't wait for an answer. "You will stay here and share your information from the ministry with me." He said, as coolly as if he was talking about the weather, instead of asking her to break one of the most important wizarding laws. Kayley allowed a small smile to play on her lips. Mr. Malfoy had just made a fatal mistake. He had not specified _all_ of the information, so she would not give him _all_ of the information.

Kayley allowed her smile to grow to a full on wolfish smile. "Of course, Mr. Malfoy," She felt like she had just won a bet. "Pray that I don't decide to start a new profile." This wasn't the smartest thing to say, but the 'payment for saving her life' thing had gone all over her just like the ice water that she was drinking.

"You wouldn't dare." He stated.

"Why wouldn't I?" She sneered defiantly.

"Because you would be dead within twenty-four hours and where would that get you?" He asked.

Kayley placed her head in her right hand, as if she had a headache and then extended her left. "Fine, it's a deal." She said. They shook solemnly. "Now, about my going home, I'll need a wand."

"I can't get you one today, but if you'll write down exactly what you had I can have it to you by tomorrow afternoon and you may leave tomorrow evening."

Kayley narrowed her eyes slightly. "I have your word on that?" She asked, suddenly not trusting him.

"You have my word." He agreed. By this time both were finished with their lunch.

"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy, now if you'll excuse me." Kayley said, standing.

"I've got some work to do. I won't be back 'till this evening. Write down what you're wand is made of and I'll go tomorrow and get you a new one." He said standing also. Kayley nodded and allowed Nora to lead her back to her room.

As soon as she got there, since it was fresh on her mind Kayley took out a piece of paper and hotel pen out her trunk and sat down at the desk in one corner of the guest room. She scribbled down the characteristics of her wand: 6in, alder, Re'em tail hair. She folded the paper and stuck it in her pocket. Then she wondered what to do. Finally, she thought of a library. Her own library was vast, so the Malfoy's must be comparable. Kayley rose from her seat and went to find Nora.

It was not hard to find Nora and soon she found herself surrounded by books. Now to find one that would occupy her time until dinner. This may not be an easy task Kayley thought as she looked around. After looking around for what felt like forever, Kayley decided on _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_. This book was required in one of her first year classes, that was the year after Lord Voldemort's reincarnation then Harry Potter killed him and then Lord Sorier took over and killed Harry Potter. Kayley decided that they needed to write a new book, Titled _The Rise and Fall and then Rise again of the Dark Arts. _It amazed Kayley how much could change in a hundred years time.

After a while, Kayley lost herself in the book. She was only aroused when Nora spoke to her. "Dinner's ready, Miss Kayley." Kayley got up and placed the book on the table beside the chair she had formerly occupied.

She and Draco didn't talk much that night since there was no business to discuss. She gave him the piece of paper that contained her wand description. He looked at it for a second before pocketing it.

Kayley retired as soon she could. Draco escorted her up to her room that night, since he was going to a room on that floor and lit her fireplace. She awoke the next morning to Nora begging her to get up. Kayley dressed and once again made her way to the dining room. Very little was said at breakfast and as soon as Draco left for 'work' Kayley went back to her room to gladly pack. After she was sure that she had all of her belongings safely in her trunk, Kayley went back to the library to try to finish that book before she left. She was sure that her parents had it, but she wouldn't have time to read it when she got home. At about noon Draco wasn't back yet, so she took sandwiches and pumpkin juice in the library. Nora cleared the dishes from the table after she finished with them, but Kayley didn't notice. She was too absorbed in the book.

"Surely you own that one." Said someone behind her, interrupting her thoughts on the book. Kayley shut it and put it back on the table.

"Yes, but I haven't read it since I was eleven and I hardly have time to read anymore." She said after she turned in her chair to face Draco. His hands were behind his back and after she had finished her sentence, he pulled out a long thin box from behind him and handed it to her. It was a plain, white box. Kayley opened it to find a nine inch wand, cushioned in tissue paper. She took it out and examined it thoroughly, admiring the craftsmanship. It felt warm and familiar in her hands, just like her old one. After a while, she looked up at Draco. "Mine was six inches." She said, thinking that there must be some mistake.

"Mr. Ollivander said that this one would work better for you. It's nine inches instead of six and has a dragon heartstring for its core." Kayley looked at it like she wasn't sure. "Try it out." Draco said. Kayley pointed it at one of the candles. A small breeze erupted from the end of her new wand. The candle flickered and went out.

"Thank you." Kayley said standing. She pointed her new wand at the book and it returned to its place on the shelf. She checked the giant clock that was hanging on one wall. It read five o'clock. It was time for her to go home. "I'll just go and send my trunk home." She said awkwardly, moving past him on her way to the guest room she was staying in.

Kayley had left her trunk open in case she needed to put something else in there. She made a quick sweep of the room with her eyes. She saw nothing else that should be in her trunk and shut it with a snap. Kayley pointed her new wand at it and banished it to her bedroom. It was nice to have a wand. It had an odd sense of empowerment. She felt like she was forgetting something and then she felt a small draft and remembered—her cloak. It was hanging in Miss Granger's office. She longed to summon it, but thought better of it and refrained. She glided down the stairs on a cloud. She hadn't realized how much she missed home until just now. She'd only been gone a little over a week, but she was only supposed to have been gone five days.

Draco was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. "I'll walk you to the gate." He said. She followed him through the labyrinth of curses leading to the gate. They had used all of the same classic curses that her family had. The curses that her family had made up were, of course, absent and there were a few new ones that she didn't recognize. There was still snow on the ground and Kayley was glad that her robes were all long sleeved. She was very cold. After what seemed like forever, with the silence and the cold they made it to the gate.

"Good-bye." Kayley said awkwardly. Draco extended his hand and she took it. After they released, Kayley did a half turn and concentrated very hard on her front porch.

When she opened her eyes, she was indeed standing on her front porch. There was no snow, but it was very cool. She couldn't remember when she had ever been so happy to be home, or so tired. She all at once noticed how tired she was and wondered why she didn't collapse here and now. She disarmed the door and went in. The first sitting room she came to she yielded to the tiredness and fell onto the couch was immediately asleep.


	7. Chapter 7: The Minister's Reaction

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or anything from Harry Potter. The only thing that I own is plot and any characters that you don't recognize.

Kayley woke up once in the middle of the night and dragged herself up to her room, wondering what time it was. She fell back asleep in her bed without checking. When she woke up sunlight was pouring into her window. She dressed groggily and went downstairs.

"Lucky!" Kayley yelled, reaching the bottom of the stairs. She little house elf appeared instantaneously.

"Yes Miss?" it asked. Kayey could tell that it was glad she was home.

"What day is it?"

"Sunday, miss." Great Kayley thought tiredly I can go to work tomorrow.

Kayley yawned. It was a huge yawn and she thought it would never stop. When it finally subsided, Kayley was ready for something to eat, after sleeping for two days.

The next morning Kayley wasn't sure she was ready for work, but she got up and got dressed anyway. Kayley swept into the big building minutes later. She was still worried about being fired, but she felt more confident now for some reason. She stopped on her floor by Nichelle's desk. Nichelle stared at her wide-eyed.

"How about some coffee?" Kayley asked. Nichelle jumped up to get it without hesitating. Kayley took the cup gladly without hesitation. It was amazing how much difference the fact that Kayley could fire her had made on Nichelle.

Kayley opened the door to her office and went in. Mrs. Kipling was on her hands and knees going through one of the lower file cabinets. She looked like she was really concentrating. Kayley took a drink of her coffee and set it down on her desk. It was cluttered with papers and not how she had left it.

"Did I not organize them well enough?" Kayley asked, looking at Mrs. Kipling on the floor. The old woman straitened up like some one had just poured ice water down her back. _Oh, crap, I've been fired while I was gone. _Kayley thought getting a sick feeling as she watched Mrs. Kipling slowly get up and turn around.

Kayley had never seen that lady move so fast. She was by her side in an instant and Kayley was engulfed in an enormous hug. Mrs. Kipling pulled back and embraced her, like a mother or a grandmother would. "We thought you were dead." She said before she pulled away. "We couldn't find your parents and were afraid that your aunt and uncle would have to make the funeral arrangements and your parents wouldn't make it. Your uncle's been so worried and I'm sure that your aunt has been too." Kayley was stunned.

Mrs. Kipling looked at her intensely for a moment. "I have to tell the minister that you're back, he'll want to hear about it." Kayley nodded as she heard the door click shut behind Mrs. Kipling. They had thought she was dead? She had never even imagined the possibility that they would miss her. Her parents sure wouldn't, not if she had been gone ten years instead of a few days. She had imagined the possibility that her aunt and uncle would miss her and maybe even worry about her, but never think that she was dead.

Kayley tried to push what she had just learned out of her head, but it was stubbornly sticking. Kayley went over to the file cabinets, finally managing to push the guilt to the back of her mind, but not out of her head. She pointed her wand at the file cabinet. "Draco Malfoy." She said quietly. Nothing happened. She wasn't surprised. She didn't remember that name when she was sorting through the profiles. However, Kayley raised her wand again, just in case. "Draco Malfoy," again nothing happened. Then Kayley had an idea. She pointed her wand at the file cabinets once more. "Malfoy," was all she said this time and to her surprise one of the drawers flew open and a profile landed neatly in her out stretched hand. She carried it back to her desk, which was still cluttered. She effortlessly floated to mess to Mrs. Kipling's desk and set the profile on her own. Her guilt was now gone and she was over taken with curiosity. Kayley opened the cream-colored folder and glanced at the picture of the blond man staring back at her, no, he wasn't staring,—he was sneering.

"Kayley, the Minister will see you now." Mrs. Kipling's soft voice said. Kayley felt like a kid that had been very much into a game and then got called away. She nodded and reluctantly shut the folder. "Did you see any of them?" Mrs. Kipling asked. Kayley saw Draco Malfoy staring at her behind his death eater mask before he dismissed Malcolm. She shook her head. "Did you hear any of their names?" Mrs. Kipling asked. 'Who's in here Malcolm?' 'Not today, Demos,' Draco's voice echoed in her thoughts. She placed her fingertips to her forehead, trying to push it out. She felt bad enough about worrying everyone and, now lying. "Are you alright?" Mrs. Kipling asked.

"Just thinking," Kayley said.

"Did you get any names?" Mrs. Kipling repeated. Kayley put her hand down and shook her head. "Go on then. The Minister will be waiting." Kayley gratefully hurried out of her office and to the elevator.

Kayley knocked on the door. "Come in," came the Minister's voice from the other side of the door. Kayley went in and saw the fire flicker; he had just been talking to someone. "Sit down."" The minister said pleasantly as he motioned to a chair. She gracefully lowered herself into the chair and watched the minister sort the papers on his desk. "You gave us quite a scare." He said finally looking up.

"Err, yes, sir." Kayley said concentrating very hard on her knees she felt like she was in the principal's office at school. That was stupid, she was twenty years old. "Sorry." She mumbled, still not looking at him. What the hell was she going to tell him?

"So, Miss Daniels, what happened?" _Oh, great, here we go._ Kayley thought.

"Well," Kayley started. Perhaps she would start with the truth and go from there.

"Miss Granger was giving me the tour and going over some of their plans. We got to the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes and the death eaters attacked. I got hit with a stunning spell, I think, and I hit my head when I fell." _So_ _far so good. Now what?_ Kayley sat there for a while, pretending to collect herself, but really trying to decide what to do now.

"When I woke up I was in a basement at a house out in the country. It was Friday afternoon, the woman who lived there told me, and I had been there since I had been knocked out. Her son worked at the ministry and brought me there. I thanked her and Apparated home. Apparition takes a lot out of me. I fell asleep as soon as I got home. When I woke up the house elf told me that it was Sunday. I rested some more yesterday and came to work today."

"Who were you staying with?" _Oh shit, the inevitable question._

"I didn't catch her name." Kayley said as evenly as possible.

"I see. Did you catch any of the death eater's names?"

"No, sir."

"Did you recognize any of them? I heard that you had been studying pictures trying to be able to distinguish them from their eyes."

"No, sir, they never got close enough to see their eyes. Even if they had I doubt that I would have had enough time to identify them."

"Do you remember the tour and the information you got from Miss Granger?"

"Yes, sir, they're mainly having problems with Fenrir Greyback. They're not sure what to do about him. They're not at present having problems with vampires, and giants are also giving them trouble. They don't know what to do with them either. I forgot to ask about dementors." Kayley finished

"Anything else," the minister asked.

"No, sir, we didn't get very far with the tour."

"I see. Can you think of anything important to tell me?" Kayley thought about it for a while.

"No, sir," She said. Maybe she imagined it, but she thought he looked sad, or depressed.

"Are you up to going back?" He asked.

"When?" she answered. He smiled a little, but not for very long.

"December sixteenth. Are you sure you don't mind." The minister looked worried.

"Yes, I'm positive." Kayley said. "Minister, if we're done, I have some work to do."

"Oh, yes, fine, you're excused." He said distractedly, looking under a pile of papers on his desk.

Kayley was now walking purposefully down the familiar hall on her own floor. She passed Nichelle's desk and stopped at the door with the gold number seven. She raised her hand to knock and then put it down again. Then she laughed aloud, remembering the last time she had stood outside this door. Why was she always so nervous about interrupting? Kayley put her hand back up and boldly knocked. There was no answer. She waited a while and knocked again. After a few minutes, when she was considering knocking again, or just going in, the door opened. Uncle Evan stepped aside to let her in. As soon as she was in, she was once again wrapped in a big hug. Uncle Evan embraced her like Mrs. Kipling had and sat back down behind his desk.

"Kay, you scared us so bad." He said. "Next time write." Kayley nodded. That's what she should have done in the first place. "Mrs. Kipling told me what you told her." Kayley looked at him, wondering what came next. "Would you like to tell me what really happened? You're too hard headed for a little concrete floor to give you a concussion."

How much did he know? Or, how much does he think he know? Kayley wondered before she answered. "No." was all she said. If he knew the story was made-up, there was no sense in lying to him. He only nodded.

"You should thank who ever it was that helped you." He said. How did he know some one helped her?

Kayley shrugged. "Sure," she said. _Yeah right._ She thought. _I'm sure going to thank him after the blackmail. _

"Kayley," her uncle started. He never called her Kayley. "I'm glad you're back." Kayley smiled a little and nodded. She knew that he and Aunt Kya had both wanted her to come home. Her parents would have never told her that.

"Your Aunt Kya's been dying to see you. Why don't you come to dinner tonight?" Uncle Evan asked. Kayley smiled and nodded.

"I have some work to do." She said as she stood up.

"I'll see you tonight." Uncle Evan said walking her to the door.

Kayley went back into her office. Mrs. Kipling wasn't in there. She shut the door and sat down at her desk. The Malfoy profile was lying just as she left it on her desk. Kayley sat down and placed a warming charm on her coffee before she took a drink. She carefully opened the profile and for the first time, took a good look at the blond man, who did not look unlike Draco. He was older and had longer hair. His gaze was somewhat colder than Draco's. This was Draco's father. Kayley hadn't read a word of the profile, and it probably didn't even mention the man's family, but this was Draco's father—she knew it.

Kayley scanned the profile, only reading what seemed important. He was imprisoned in Azkaban June 24, 1995. Dark objects found in his manor were confiscated and was definitely a Death Eater. Kayley didn't find the information very useful and put it up.

Kayley walked out to the hall. She went the opposite direction that usual and started walking down the hall. She saw that Nichelle was reading a book when she passed. _Must not have enough to do, _Kayley thought grumpily. She walked all of the way down the hall. She had passed the doors with numbers by now and was a very long way from her office. She stopped at the last door on the left. "_Alohomora,"_ she said before the door gave a satisfying click. Kayley pushed the door open. Inside the room were stacks upon stacks of old newspapers with some file cabinets in the back. Kayley wasn't sure where to point her wand, so she pointed at the floor beside her. "Draco Malfoy." The papers started flying around the room. One or two papers on top of a stack in the very back rose up and came to rest beside her. Stacks split themselves in half and papers flew out of the middle. They came from the front of the room as well as the back. They all landed with a plop in the steadily growing pile beside her. After all of the papers had settled down Kayley looked sown at it. It was pretty good sized. Kayley smiled at the searching charm she had invented herself. She pointed her wand back at the pile and charmed it to follow behind her. It was amazing how much better this new wand worked. She locked the door after making sure the papers were out of the way.

She didn't want to keep the stack around. She was still unsure about what to do. She looked around her office, wondering what to do with the papers. The stack was a good six inches high and there was no good place to hide it. People would ask questions if they saw all of the papers. Kayley took five off the top of the stack and put them in her bottom desk drawer. Kayley pulled out her wand and transfigured the stack into the marble block that would make the perfect paperweight. It had black splotches on the top, where the text of the black words had been.

Mrs. Kipling walked in. She started going through her desk. Kayley dug into her own desk and pulled out one of the papers. She decided she's have to read it cover to cover. The searching spell would pick his name out of a paragraph that just mentioned him and add it to the pile. It was a pretty old paper. Its date read May 26, 1987. Kayley started to read the first story on the front page. She was interrupted half way through it.

"Kayley?" Mrs. Kipling said to get her attention. Kayley looked up and put the paper down. "I was going through the profiles—they're arranged very nicely by the way—and it seems like some of the files aren't quite up to date. Would you mind updating them? You know about the paper room, just use the papers in there." Kayley nodded.

"I'm already working on it." Kayley lied, picking the paper back up. She would work on this first and then the profiles.

After reading, the first paper Kayley was fairly disappointed. It turned out that when Draco was about to turn seven his father had bought him a new racing broom. He had been the first to have the new model of children's racing broom. Kayley sighed and put the paper down. The only thing that she learned was that if he couldn't fly, and had started that early, he sucked as a flyer. She could have also learned that his father wasn't always in prison, but she already knew that.

The next few papers she read were not much more helpful. They were all from after '97 and were all about donations. The papers made it very clear that Mr. Draco Malfoy was rich. Unfortunately, she hadn't learned any thing there either. She had already known he was loaded from being at his Manor. Every single paper after the first was about donations. Two or three went to St. Mungo's (which was apparently a hospital). Four or five went to the Ministry, and there were also some other small donations.

Of course, this information was not what she was looking for. How could a Death Eater do all of that good? The papers made it look like he was brown-nosing. It must be working, since he had escaped Azkaban all of these years. It wasn't until about five days after Kayley started looking through the papers before she found something.

It was another normal day at work, so far anyway. Kayley had just got there. She tossed the papers she had brought home back into her drawer. Nothing. Kayley sat down and laid her head in her arms. Mrs. Kipling wouldn't be there for another hour. She was down to the last two or three papers and was afraid of more donations. She sighed and sat up. Surely there wouldn't be anything in these papers besides donations. Maybe she should just take the stack back to the newspaper room. Kayley picked up the next paper. She didn't pay any attention to the headline, 'Hogwarts Headmaster Murdered.' She scanned the paper, looking for the donation article that was always there, but this morning she couldn't find it. She turned back to the front page, slightly annoyed that she couldn't find whatever it was that she was looking for. Now she would have to read the paper from cover to cover. Kayley soon found that she didn't have to read anything but the first article.

After reading the article, Kayley felt slightly sick. Albus Dumbledore had been murdered in a tower by one of his teachers, Severus Snape, and a student, Draco Malfoy. The pair had been spotted leaving the tower together after the tragedy. No witnesses had come forward and there was a huge man-hunt under way.


	8. Chapter 8: Visits in the Night

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or anything from Harry Potter. The only thing that I own is plot and any characters that you don't recognize.

The rest of the day was a blur. Kayley was shocked to say the least. Why was he worried about getting a profile? Why didn't he already have one? She had dug out Severus Snape's file and couldn't find anything in it matching what the paper said. Why had they left this all out? How did she miss it when she redid the files? The best Kayley could come up with was that the papers were stuck behind a file cabinet. She hadn't invented the searching spell back then and could have easily missed them. It bothered her that she didn't have time to read the rest of the papers at work and Kayley took them home with her.

She looked at them at the table while she ate and then finished them in the living room. They were the most interesting things that she had read in a while. She read that after Severus and Draco had been running for about three months they were captured. There was a trial, but the _Prophet_ was sure of a guilty verdict for both of them. There were no witnesses and the only thing that they were going on was that more than one person had testified that they had seen Draco and Severus leave the tower and it didn't help that they were both on the run when they were caught. Then the case went came to a turning point when a witness came forward. Harry Potter had grudgingly testified that Draco had not killed Dumbledore. The paper made it clear that even though Harry had testified that Draco didn't kill Dumbledore he definitely didn't put in a good word for him. As a matter of fact he had done the exact opposite. When the trial was over Severus Snape was taken to Azkaban and Draco was put on probation. Harry insisted that Draco was a Death Eater and that his forearm be checked before he was aloud to leave, but the minister was in a hurry and no one else was very interested. That was what she got from the article anyway.

It was around midnight before she got to bed.

"Mrs. Kipling, I noticed that this isn't in here." Kayley said showing Mrs. Kipling the paper and the profile.

"Well, why didn't put it in there when you redid it!" Mrs. Kipling yelled.

Kayley was shocked. "I didn't find them until recently; didn't you see them when you did it?" Kayley asked.

"That is your job! You should have put it in there.!" Mrs. Kipling shrieked. "YOU'RE FIRED! KAYLEY? ARE YOU LISTENING? YOU'RE FIRED. KAYLEY! KAYLEY! KAYLEY!" her voice was getting fainter.

"WHAT!" Kayley yelled back sitting up in bed. Garvin, the butler her parents insisted on keeping around, even though no one ever came over except Sky, was standing in her doorway.

"Someone is here to see you, miss." He said, looking very rigid in her doorway.

"I'll be down in a minute." Kayley said stumbling out of bed. He shut the door behind him as he left. Kayley glanced at the clock. It read 4:00. Why were there people there at this hour? Kayley thought groggily, flipping on the light. She hurriedly pulled on a pair of jeans and socks and shoes. _There_ must be an emergency at work. Kayley thought pulling on a t-shirt without a bra. She didn't brush her hair or anything as she hurried down the stairs. She found the visitor in the last sitting room she came to.

"Oh, shit," She said softly, seeing who the visitor was. Draco Malfoy was sitting in her sitting room, in her house, reading the papers she had brought home from work. He folded the paper and put it down, turning his gaze onto her. She self-consciously started running her fingers through her ratty hair. It looked awful, she could tell, by the way it felt. Kayley awkwardly moved to the chair across from him with her arms folded across her chest.

Garvin was there in a second. "Can I get you any refreshments?" Kayley raised an eyebrow. He never did anything, and it amazed her at how good he actually was at his job.

"Nothing for me, thank you." Draco said, not taking his eyes off Kayley.

"Whatever you can find with the most caffeine." Kayley said, _or the strongest alcohol you can find._ Kayley thought feeling slightly sick at the position she was in. Garvin did a little about face and went to get it.

"What are you wearing?" Draco asked. He sounded disgusted.

Kayley narrowed her eyes slightly. "Clothes," She said.

He held up one of the papers. "What is this?"

While Kayley was trying to decide what to say, she realized that she hadn't ever invited him over. "How did you get into my house?" After she asked, she realized that she didn't really expect him to answer.

"You're curses are almost exactly the same as mine. I disarmed the ones I knew and guessed at the ones I didn't." He said evenly.

Garvin showed up just as he finished his sentence. He had a cup of coffee that smelled like it had a lot of sugar in it. God bless him. As soon as he handed it to her, he left them alone again. Draco turned his attention back to her.

"I thought we agreed on no profiles." Was all he said.

"I don't remember that." Kayley said evenly. She took a sip of the hot liquid and burned her tongue.

"I'd like to see it." He said. Kayley sat her coffee down on the table beside her chair, to free up her hands and arms to cover her chest.

"I'm afraid that profiles are confidential, it would be against the law for me to show you." She said calmly.

"So break the law. You have before." He reminded her.

"I'll tell you what; I'll show you the profile if you add to it something worth breaking the law for." Kayley said. She looked him right in the eye the whole time. He leaned forward slightly.

"Deal." He said.

"Excuse me." Kayley said, crossing the room to the stairs. Once she was out of his sight, she started running to her bedroom. When she got there, she flipped on the light and threw off her shirt, looking around wildly for a bra. After she put on a bra, she hurried to the attached bathroom and starred at her reflection in horror. She brushed her hair quickly and went back into her bedroom, wondering how much time she had taken up already. She picked up the profile on her bedside table and ran back down the stairs, that is until right before Draco would be able to see her, and then she slowed to a walk. She handed him the profile, sat down and took another sip of her coffee.

Draco absently flipped through the profile. Kayley watched his facial expressions to see his reaction, but his face stayed blank. After awhile he neatly arranged the papers and slid them back into the folder. He handed it back to her, careful not to spill the papers. "Snape was responsible for the Towler murders," was all he said.

"That helps me so much." Kayley said sarcastically, stifling a yawn. She wished he would leave; she had to be to work by seven in the morning.

"What did they say when you got back?" He asked, ignoring her sarcasm.

"About what? What happened after the attack, or what I found out?"

"Both." He said.

"Well they accepted the story I made up, but I'm not sure they believed it." She said.

"Do they expect…?"

"No, I don't think so. There was nothing to say about the information that I had. It wasn't important, and I didn't find out anything we didn't already know." He nodded.

"Is that all you came here for?" Kayley asked, standing. She already knew the answer.

"Yes," He said, getting up too.

"Well then, if you don't mind I have to be to work by seven tomorrow." She paused, and decided he didn't have anything else to say. "Garvin!" she called. The hunched over butler walked into the room instantaneously. "Would please you show Mr. Malfoy to the door?" She turned to Draco. "Good-bye, Mr. Malfoy." He nodded once and followed Garvin to the door. Kayley slowly made her way back to bed.

The next day at work went slowly, as Kayley was still working on updating files. She was relieved when it was time for her lunch break. She read the paper and ate at home like usual and then went back to work. Kayley opened the door and stood frozen in the doorway. There was a tall, blond man, who looked only slightly older than, her sitting on her desk, thumbing through the profile she had been working on.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU"RE DOING?" She yelled, he looked up from the profile and smiled. He slid off her desk and put the profile back where she had left it. He stepped closer and extended his hand.

"Ethan Phelps." He said. Kayley glared at him and made no move to take his hand. "The Minister has just granted me a position and told me to come here and wait for you."

"Then you should have waited." Kayley said vehemently.

"I was, and then I got bored." He said stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Aren't you old enough to control your boredom and your curiosity?" Kayley could feel her nails digging into her palms. She felt a gently push behind her and moved to let Mrs. Kipling in.

"What's going on?" she asked once she was in the room.

"I came in and this son of a…man," Kayley said catching herself just in time, "was going through the profiles." Kayley explained.

"Who are you?" Mrs. Kipling said.

"I am Evan Phelps; the Minister gave me a position in this department and said to come here…"

"Mrs. Kipling, would you please take Mr. Phelps and get him a different position, one not in my department…."

"But this in my area of expertise…" He interrupted, Kayley held up a hand to silence him and turned on her heel.

"I'll be back, lock the door behind you." Kayley said reaching for her cloak. "Damn it!" she cursed when it wasn't there. "Accio cloak!" Kayley started down the hall and in a few seconds it had floated into her hand. She wrapped it around her and went outside into the wind and the cold.

With a pop, Kayley appeared on a mountain. It was snowing there and the flakes swirled around her. Kayley glanced around until she found a hole in the side of the mountain. It was half hidden by snow and bushes. Kayley carefully lowered herself into the hole and slid down. The ground had looked muddy inside the hole, but it was an illusion and was really dry and clean. Kayley emerged in a huge underground room, facing a castle that looked like it was made of the same stone found in caves. It was surrounded by stalactites and stalagmites. It was covered in magical light. The drawbridge was lowered and Kayley went across it. Crossing a small underground stream that went around the castle.

Kayley raised the giant doorknocker and knocked three times on the giant oak door. It opened by itself and she went in. The door opened into a room with a giant spiral staircase in the center of it. Kayley could see several students hurrying around on the upper levels. It was warm in the castle and Kayley loosened her cloak before mounting the giant staircase. There were places kind of like platforms to get onto the stairs on every floor. Kayley got off on the third floor and turned right to the magnificent library that felt so familiar.

Kayley watched the librarian, Mrs. Zared, glance at her, go back to shelving books, and then do a double take. Despite her irritation, Kayley smiled at her, as she made her way to her. Mrs. Zared hugged her. Kayley looked around, remembering the hours she used to spend here.

"Kayley! What are you doing here?" The old woman asked, clearly delighted.

"I actually came to ask you about a book you had just ordered the year I graduated." Kayley said, suddenly wishing she had more time. "_The Complex Book of Transfiguration_?"

"Yes! I knew you were interested in that one. No one's checked it out though, well except Professor Jarvis, of course. I'll go get it for you." She moved off towards her desk and Kayley followed. Mrs. Kipling pulled a huge book bound in green leather off of the shelf, and handed it to Kayley. Kayley stared at it almost loving, having a hard time not opening it right then and there.

"What do you need it for?" Mrs. Zared asked conversationally. "Light reading?" She chortled at her own joke.

"I wish." Kayley said tucking the book gently under her arm. "I'm going to use it for security reasons."

"Security reasons? Kayley Daniels, only you could use a transfiguration book for security!"

"You'd be surprised." Kayley said.

"With you? No I wouldn't" Mrs. Zared said. She looked thoughtful for a minute.

"You should go see Professor Jarvis." She said finally.

"I would love to," Kayley said, regret licking every word. "But I can't. I'm in too big of a hurry. Maybe I could make a social visit later." Mrs. Zared shrugged and gave Kayley another hug. "See yah later." Kayley said heading back to the spiral stairs.

Kayley was almost to the first floor when she heard someone calling her name. She stopped and turned around. A blond boy was running down the stairs toward her. When he got there she recognized him as Sebastian, he was in his first year when she graduated, so he must about twelve now. "Kayley, Professor Jarvis wants to see you."

"Can I go some other time?" She asked. "I'm kind of in a hurry."

"No, he wants to see you _right now_." Kayley sighed and looked at the ceiling of the castle. Professor Jarvis' room was on the second to the last floor at the top.

"Fine." She said, sad for being interrupted, but Professor Jarvis was her favorite teacher and she did want to see him.

Kayley knocked on the door. She heard a muffled 'come in' form the other side and went in. He was sitting at his desk, and looked like he wasn't doing anything. It would seem weird, since most people would at least pretend to do something while they were waiting for a meeting. Then again Professor Jarvis was what some would consider a horse of a different color.

He was pretty strange in some ways. The first thing strange about him that Kayley had noticed in school was that he seemed to only have one name all of the other teachers only called him 'Jarvis'. He always introduced himself as 'Jarvis', and every paper Kayley had ever seen him sign was signed 'Jarvis'. He also was the only teacher who insisted on being called 'Professor.' All of the other teachers preferred to be called 'Mr.', 'Mrs.' or 'Miss.' He had always looked young, well middle aged. He had not aged in all of Kayley's years in school and still looked just as young. His brown hair, mustache, and short beard showed no signs of a graying. His blue eyes still shone with youth. Kayley had wondered about this many times, he had to be older than he looked.

He stood behind his desk and extended his hand. Kayley took it and smiled. It was ironic how funny this seemed to her. This was the first time he had shook her hand. Of course, the last time she had seen him he was her teacher, and what teacher shakes hands with his students?

"Kayley," He said by way of greeting as he sat down.

"Professor," Kayley said sitting also and trying not to laugh at his formalness.

"What are you doing back at school?" He asked conversationally.

"Oh, you knew I'd be back sooner or later." She said with a smile. "I came to borrow a book." Kayley said holding up the Transfiguration book.

He nodded. "What are you going to use it for?" He asked.

Kayley exhaled a little sigh. "Security, I caught some loser in my office going through files."

"I see and what were you thinking of using?" He asked nodding to the book.

"I'm not sure yet. Why did you want to see me, Professor?" She asked.

"I have a proposition." He said, now gazing at her steadily. "I've never had a student like you before, in all my years, I've never seen someone so gifted in Transfiguration as you are." He got up, crossed the room to the door, and peeked out. He then shut the door and went back to his seat. "I've figured out the secret of wandless magic." He said in a lowered voice.

Kayley sat up a little straighter and leaned forward slightly. "You mean controlled

wandless magic?" Her voice was now almost a whisper too. He gave a slight nod.

"Have you told anyone? The Ministry?" He shook his head.

"No, and I won't, Britain is in the middle of a war. A war that it looks like we're going to join. Can you imagine what would happen if either side got a hold of this? No, I won't tell while there's a war going on, probably not even it there was no war."

Kayley smiled, "So never, then? Why are you telling me this?" Her smile faded at the second sentence.

"I think you could do it." He said, looking very serious. "I'd like to teach you how." Kayley looked thoughtful for several minutes. She and Professor Jarvis could be the only two people with the ability to do wandless magic. Then again, when would she have time to learn it? Her work was taxing already and only looked like it would get worse. She also had to deal with how not to give Draco any important without him knowing she wasn't telling him everything.

"I can't." She finally said sadly. "Work is keeping me busier than ever, and now I have two new problems to figure out." She said almost apologetically.

Professor Jarvis nodded. "Well, you think about it some more, and if your work load ever lightens, come see me."

"I will." Kayley said sincerely, allowing herself to be lead to the door.


	9. Chapter 9: The Cold

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or anything from Harry Potter. The only thing that I own is plot and any characters that you don't recognize.

Kayley threw open the door to her office and was relieved to find that no one was

in there. She opened the heavy book and began looking for the spell she wanted.

Mrs. Kipling came in that afternoon, she was minus Ethan Phelps. Kayley gave up at the end of the day and went home. She was too tired to bring the book.

Three days had passed and Kayley once again set to finding a suitable spell. This time she was successful. She closed her eyes and pointed at the door. She spoke the spell clearly and when she opened her eyes, she faced nothing but the blank wall.

Mrs. Kipling had been watching her with interest and now turned in her seat to face Kayley. "Now how will we open the door?" She inquired politely. Well, it sounded polite. Kayley knew it was really intended to point out that she had made a mistake, but she hadn't. Kayley strolled over to her desk and pulled out a pen and piece of paper. She wrote something on it and handed it to Mrs. Kipling.

"That is the counter spell. Say it to the blank wall and the door will appear. After you enter it will disappear again."

"Right," Mrs. Kipling said, tucking the paper into her pocket, apparently still not believing that this was a good idea. "By the way, the Minister wants to see you." She said turning to her own desk and writing something.

"What for?" Mrs. Kipling shrugged. Kayley had sat down at her own desk, but she now stood and walked to the door. It didn't take her long to get to the Minister's office. She knocked on the door and entered after she heard him say 'come in'.

Kayley sat in the chair across from him with the wooden desk between them.

"Are you ready to go back?" He asked. Kayley stared at him. The sixteenth of December was next week. She had completely forgotten about going back.

"Yes, sir." She said, glad that he didn't want to talk about Ethan Phelps.

"Alright then, I just wanted to remind you. Be sure and get plenty of sleep on the fifteenth."

"Yes, sir." Kayley said standing. When she got back to her office, she was momentarily surprised to find Mrs. Kipling had already left—then she looked at the clock. Mrs. Kipling had gotten off work about ten minutes ago. After Kayley cleaned off her desk, she decided to leave early. She picked up her cloak, glad to have it back and left the office, checking to make sure that the door was gone before she left the building.

Kayley ate supper quickly that night. It seemed like tiredness had swept down upon her all at once and she was ready to go to bed. She took one of the quickest showers she had ever taken and went to bed.

Tap! Tap! Tap! Kayley stirred in her sleep. TAP! TAP! TAP! She opened her eyes groggily. "What?" She yawned. The door opened and the butler was, once again framed by light in her doorway.

"Mr. Malfoy is here to see you, miss." He said.

"Again?" He nodded.

"Shall I ask him to leave?"

"No…no, I'll be right down." Garvin turned to leave, "Garvin, turn on the light, please." Kayley said sitting up. He flipped on the light.

"Anything else, miss?" He paused.

"No, that's all, thank you." Kayley swung her legs over the side of the bed as the door clicked shut. She dressed quickly, but did not neglect her hair or the dark lines that were sure to be under her eyes.

When she entered the sitting room, Garvin stood in the doorway that eventually lead to the kitchen waiting for her. She sat down across from Draco. "Can I get you any refreshments?" Garvin asked.

"Nothing for me," Draco said.

"Umm, coke." Kayley said. Garvin left to get her drink and Kayley turned her attention back to Draco.

"So," she said, starting to feel more awake. She was hoping that he wasn't here to get information. She hadn't done anything since she got back besides increase security in her office. "What brings you all the way over here?"

"I actually came to see if they had…err...assigned someone else to…observe the progress in the Ministry." Garvin noiselessly handed Kayley her coke. She took a sip and he left as noiselessly as he had entered.

"No, I haven't been replaced." She said, and then seeing where this was going she said, "I'm going back the sixteenth."

"Has anything important happened since you got back?"

"No, nothing important to you. I've been too busy to do anything important."

"Too busy doing anything important to me or in general?"

She smirked, a new thought just dawning on her. "I haven't done anything important to anyone except me."

"So, how have you been occupying your time?"

Kayley took another drink, trying to decide what to say. " I caught a man in my office the other day and I've been coming up with new security measures."

"What did you come up with?"

Kayley paused. Why did he think she would tell him that? "Is that all you came here for?" She asked calmly. He looked blank. "To see when I'm coming back?" She supplied.

"Oh, yes." He said. Kayley took another drink of her half-finished coke and set it on the table.

"Garvin!" The butler appeared instantaneously. "Please show Mr. Malfoy to the door." Kayley watched them go until they were almost to the doorway that led to the front door. Then she went back to her room.

Kayley spent the next several days preparing for her trip back to Britain. She didn't work late and ate regularly, since she had gotten used to skipping lunch, and sometimes breakfast. She also started preparing the files and documents that she wanted to take with her. She had a problem though, how could she keep the files safe while she wasn't working? She thought about it several times during the days she spent preparing.

Then on December fourteenth she woke up to both a world filled with snow, (her's anyway) and a cold. She sneezed all day, several people advised her to take a potion, but she refused. That night she hardly slept, she was worse the next day. After work, she finally caved (sort of) and went to a Muggle store that was on her way home and bought some Muggle cold medicine.

Kayley slept a little better that night, but still woke up ill refreshed and tired. She wearily sent her trunk to Mr. Malfoy's. Luckily, she had had an epiphany about what to do with her confidential documents. They were neatly tucked in the hem of her cloak sleeve as safety pins.

Kayley took the toast that Lucky offered her in a daze. Then she groggily Apparated to work. Mrs. Kipling met her as she was on her way down the hall. Kayley sneezed her greeting and Mrs. Kipling looked worried.

"Why didn't you take a potion for your cold?" Kayley shrugged. "I don't think you should go." Kayley threw her a dirty look.

"I'b going." She said firmly and then sniffed. Mrs. Kipling shook her head, but didn't argue.

Kayley wasn't sure why she had to see the Minister before she left, but that was what she had been told to do.

"Miss Daniels," the Minister said. "You look awful."

"Danks." Kayley said after she sneezed.

"I want you to go to St. Mungo's, just to see how well it's operating and such. Get more information on their plan, please. I think that's about it. Also, remember anything that you think is important. You'll be back by the twenty-fourth?" Kayley sniffed involuntarily.

"Ob course, Binisder."

"Are you sure you're alright to go?" The Minister asked.

"Ob course, Binisder." Kayley sneezed and then Apparated before the Minister could change his mind.

Kayley appeared in front of the front gate of Malfoy Manor. In front of the _locked_ gate of Malfoy Manor. "Shit." Kayley said staring at the lock. She then sneezed again. Kayley pulled out her wand and pulled her cloak closer. "I'b invited, damn it." Kayley said to the gate, brandishing her wand. The gate made no response. Kayley set to undoing the security enchantments that surrounded the huge house.

She felt rather stupid standing on his doorstep, half-frozen, ringing his doorbell. She also felt surprised when it worked and a butler opened the door. The old butler looked surprised too. "May I help you?" Kayley sniffed and then shivered. "I'b here do see Bister Balfoy." She said. The butler about shut the door too keep her out while he checked, but Kayley put her foot in the door. "You're kidding, right?" She asked, turning her head to sneeze.

"Is there a problem, Luis?" A voice said behind the malicious butler.

"No, sir, there's just a woman here to see you. Shall I send her away?" Not even trying to keep the spitefulness out of his voice.

"That won't be necessary." Draco said pushing the door open, and sending the butler a clear message to move out of the way and that he was dismissed. Kayley stepped in and he shut the door behind her. She leaned heavily on the wall behind her, hoping she wouldn't pass out from the tiredness that the long walk to his front door hadn't helped.

"You look awful." Draco commented. Kayley rolled her eyes.

"You bust be the billionth person do say dat do be." Kayley sniffed.

"Why don't you take a potion?" Kayley gave a funny sounding laugh with her cold and drowsiness.

"I'd kill byself. Dow, if you'll excuse be, Bister Balfoy, I'b going do bed." She picked herself up off of the wall and started to the stairs. What if she passed out on the way up there? Someone would have to carry of levitate her to bed or leave her there. That thought and the cold made her shiver.

When Kayley reached the room she had been assigned the last time she 'visited,' she did pass out immediately on the bed. When Kayley woke up the room was dark, she was stretched out flat on her stomach. Her shoes were hurting her feet and her face was in a wet spot of snot and drool since she had been sleeping on her stomach instead of her back. She sat up. Oh great, where was her wand? "Lumos" Kayley whispered. Her wand lit up beside her on the bed, where her arm had been a second ago. It was a miracle she hadn't broken it in her sleep. She picked it up, "Incendio." The wall sconces lit up and Kayley got up and stumbled to her trunk. She pulled out a pair of sweat pants and a long-sleeved shirt she had brought to sleep in. She pulled out the bottle of Muggle medicine and took a drink, without bothering to even glance at the instructions. She replaced the cap and put the bottle back into her trunk.

She flipped the pillow over and crawled under the covers and fell back to sleep.

"Miss Kayley! Miss Kayley! Please wake up!" Kayley opened one eye with some difficulty, since they had apparently crusted over. A house elf stood over her holding a potion bottle. "Master wants Miss to drink potion and go to breakfast." Kayley glared at the little elf.

"Go way." She mumbled before rolling over and going back to sleep. The poor little house elf shouted at her some more before giving up.

Kayley woke up, but did not open her eyes. She couldn't. She started working on gently massaging the crust off before she was tapped on the shoulder. "Here, Miss." A house elf squeaked and Kayley felt a warm, wet washcloth in her hands. She then went to work wiping the crust off and keeping the fresh goop from getting out of control. This trip would seriously suck if she was going to be sick the whole time, Kayley thought. When she opened her eyes, she saw a blank wall. The door was behind her. Kayley gave her eyes one last wipe and then rolled over to get out of the bed on the other side. She wondered where the little house elf had gotten to. Then she realized that the elf was gone, but she wasn't the only one in the room. Draco sat regally in a high backed chair against the wall he was holding a small potion vile.

"Is it Sudday?" Kayley asked carelessly, deciding not to get out of the bed.

"Yes, you slept quite awhile." He said. Kayley looked at the folds in the bedspread, where she had disturbed it.

"Sorry, I hab a tendency to sleep quite a bit after cross-condinendal Apparition. It always wears be out." She explained. She wanted to ask him why exactly he was in her room, but she didn't know how to phrase the question.

"The house elf told me you didn't take the potion. I brought you another one." He said lazily tossing the vile to her. She caught it with ease, and sat and stared at it for a while. She could drink it. She wouldn't be of any use to him dead, surely it wasn't poison. Deciding she had nothing to lose, Kayley uncorked the bottle and tipped it into her mouth. It burned her throat, and chest after it went down. It made her eyes water and gave her a headache, and she felt smoke rushing out of her ears.

It took her a minute to recompose herself. Had it worked? Was it better? Kayley's first thought was about her eyes, her most recent, and annoying problem. They felt okay now, Kayley reached up a finger to touch the corners gently, they felt all right too. Kayley sniffed and didn't hear any thing. Her nose was no longer stuffed up, and when her throat quit burning, she realized that it was no longer sore. "Thank you." She said turning to Draco. He nodded.

"Lunch is ready." He said, watching Kayley set the empty vile on the bedside table.

"What time is it?" Kayley said clearly.

"It's almost one." Draco said checking the clock that was clearly visible on the wall, Kayley blushed slightly.

"If you'd… err… leave, I'd get dressed." Kayley said.

"Of course, excuse me." Draco said standing.

Kayley took a quick bath and pulled her robes on over her jeans. She was still annoyed about having to unlock the gate herself. He knew she was coming, why hadn't he unlocked them? It still confused Kayley as she pulled a brush through her hair.

Kayley entered the dining room and took her now usual seat. "Thanks again for the potion." Kayley said appreciatively. "I could never make a potion, and," Kayley blushed a little, "unfortunately I wasn't kidding about my potions being deadly. My brother could make wonderful potions, but he failed miserably at transfiguration and charms."

"How did you do in transfiguration and charms?" Draco asked conversationally. Kayley took a sip of her wine. She sighed, thinking of her meeting with Professor Jarvis.

"I excelled." She said simply. "How did you do in school?"

"Average at most subjects, but I excelled at potions." He smirked. "I'll make you another potion tonight." He said. Kayley nodded as the redheaded girl cleared the table.

Draco stood and helped Kayley out of her chair. "If you'll excuse me, I have some work to do." He said. Kayley nodded and started off toward the library.

Kayley got up early the next morning, so that she would have plenty of time to get ready for work. She didn't imagine that Draco was up yet. She knew that if she didn't have a job she wouldn't be up yet. She dressed quickly, since she was running behind. She hurried down the stairs to eat breakfast quickly by herself, just like she would at home.

Kayley was surprised however when Draco was already sitting at the table sipping coffee with _Daily Prophet_. Kayley sat across from him almost shyly; she didn't think that he had heard her come in. He hadn't stood up while she seated herself. She tried to be as quiet as she could as she poured herself a cup of coffee. She didn't want to disturb him if she hadn't already. He folded the paper and laid it aside. He didn't seem surprised to see her.

"Did you sleep well?" He asked politely.

"Yes, very well, thank you." Kayley said spreading butter on a piece of toast. He nodded.

"Don't forget you can't Apparate from here." Draco reminded her quietly.

"Oh my gosh!" Kayley said jumping up. "What time is it?"

"About ten 'till eight." Draco replied. Kayley started for the door, toast in hand, and then turned remembering her manners.

"Good-bye, Mr. Malfoy." She said, before turning back around and rushing to the door. Replaying what she had just done, Kayley felt foolish and like she had acted like a little kid.

Kayley Apparated to the visitor's entrance, like she had on her first visit. This time, though, she went straight to Ms. Weasley's office. She knocked on the door and entered after she was bidden. Ms. Weasley stood and crossed the room to meet her. They shook hands.

"Miss Daniels, it's nice to see you again." Ms. Weasley said, "Please sit down."

Kayley took a seat opposite of Ms. Weasley. "I thought we might continue the tour and then there's a briefing at one." Ms. Weasley said. Kayley nodded. "By the way, "Ms. Weasley said reaching into her desk drawer, "You don't need to enter through the visitor's office next time." She said handing Kayley a card. Kayley slipped it into her pocket without looking at it.

"I need to see St. Mungo's." Kayley said.

"Alright, I'm sure we can do that before you leave." Ms. Weasley said. She stood and Ms. Weasley led her out to finish the tour that had been unfinished on her last trip.


	10. Chapter 10: The Request

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or anything from Harry Potter. The only thing that I own is plot and any characters that you don't recognize.

A/N: Thank you, AngelsAriel for reviewing. Enjoy!

Kayley gave Draco her notes after she had altered them, and only after he asked. He went to his study to 'work' after dinner. Kayley had no work to do and decided to explore. She ran into some maids, but they did not speak to her except for the occasional "good evening, miss." Kayley noticed that they used wands to clean. When she reached a back hall on the third floor, she heard voices behind a closed door at the end of the hall. One was a male voice, the other a female. Kayley could not keep from stopping to listen.

"Are you feeling better this evening?" The male voice was unmistakably Draco.

"Yes, much. How was your day?" The woman asked. Draco went into an account of his day with no details. He didn't mention any Death Eater business, or Kayley.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Draco said after some more small talk. There was a pause and Kayley heard by his footsteps he was getting closer to the door—and to discovering her. She glanced around like a scared deer, looking for a place to hide. She noticed a door almost directly behind her and slipped noiselessly into it. After she shut herself in she had a horrible thought—_what if there was another woman in this room?_ Kayley heard Draco's footsteps passing and took out her wand. Summoning all of her courage, she whispered "Lumos." She looked around the room by the light of her wand. She was in a nice bedroom with a private bathroom. Thankfully, she was the only occupant. Kayley sighed her relief, and cautiously slipped back into the hall. She headed to her room, deciding

that she had had enough exploring for one night, and perhaps too much.

On Wednesday, Kayley only had two days left. Mrs. Weasley took Kayley to St. Mungo's. They entered through the glass. Kayley was given a tour and got to interview several patients—some of whom were Death Eater victims. She met a werewolf patient, a Fenrir Greyback victim. The Trainee Healer told them that due to the extent of his wounds he only had a fifty-fifty chance to live.

Kayley and Mrs. Weasley were on their way out when a Trainee Healer approached them. It was a woman who Kayley had noticed watching them on the fourth floor. "Hermione, it's nice to see you." The Trainee greeted.

"Laura!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, "I almost didn't recognize you. Miss Daniels, this is Mrs. Megan Kirke. Miss Daniels, Mr. Kirke works for us but he got hit by a nasty spell and may not be able to come back. How is he doing, by the way?" Kayley and Mrs. Kirke shook hands while Mrs. Weasley went on and Mrs. Kirke assured them that her husband was doing better. Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Kirke talked awhile longer while Kayley waited patiently. Then Kayley was surprised when the conversation turned to her.

"I was wondering," Mrs. Kirke paused, now addressing Kayley, "if you are the

foreign witch from the American Ministry?"

"I am," Kayley said simply.

"I was wondering if I might talk to you." She cast a glance at Mrs. Weasley that clearly said 'alone.'

"Of course." She looked back at Mrs. Weasley as she was being lead to a quiet corner of the room. "Excuse us," Kayley said to Mrs. Weasley.

"My husband, as you heard, was hit by a nasty spell. Andrew works for the Department of Mysteries." She paused and Kayley nodded, wondering where this was going. Mrs. Kirke looked around. "He says they've been here," she said lowering her voice.

"Who?" Kayley asked softly.

"The Death Eaters!" she whispered. "He says he sees them at night. I've heard them! We always manage to come at the right time and scare them off, but I'm afraid we'll be too slow next time, or there will be more of them." Kayley nodded sympathetically, waiting for her to go on. "He has information they want. Could you—would you relocate him?" Mrs. Kirke pleaded. Kayley wanted to believe her—and she almost did, but Death Eaters in St. Mungo's? She guessed they had been at the ministry, but she was still skeptical.

"Have you talked to Mrs. Weasley about it?" Kayley asked finally. Why was Mrs. Kirke asking her in the first place? She knew Mrs. Weasley better.

"Yes," she said sadly. "Hermione says she would like to help, but the Ministry doesn't offer a relocation problem."

"And you were hoping that the American Ministry did," Kayley stated, now understanding better. Mrs. Kirke nodded. "I'm sorry," Kayley said sadly. "We don't have a relocation program either." The woman across from her looked so sad she could not help adding, "I'll see what I can do," before heading back towards Mrs. Weasley. She waved at poor Mrs. Kirke, who looked like she was about to cry, before they left.

"So, what did she want?" Mrs. Weasley asked softly as they stepped out of St. Mungo's. They Apparated to the Ministry before Kayley answered her.

"She wanted me to relocate her husband." Kayley said. Mrs. Weasley nodded. After a few moments of silence Kayley asked, "Do you think there are Death Eaters in his room at night?"

Mrs. Weasley looked at her for a moment. "Yes. I believe her, but I can't do anything. I told her you couldn't do anything either, but I guess you can't blame her for trying. I tried; I talked to the Minister several times, but people are just too busy to start a relocation program."

Kayley nodded.

Kayley went to St. Mungo's on her lunch break the next day on her lunch break. Mrs. Kirke greeted her immediately on the fourth floor. "Mrs. Kirke," Kayley said as a greeting, leading her to a quiet corner of the waiting room.

"Please, call me Laura," Mrs. Kirke said.

"Laura, is your husband better?"

Laura looked terribly nervous. "Yes, they are letting him go tomorrow. I know _they'll _be here tonight and I don't work then." Kayley nodded.

"Meet me in the back alley at five." Kayley whispered, and then she said louder,

"I hope your husband gets to feeling better." Laura looked stunned as Kayley shook her hand.

Work passed slowly for the rest of the day. Kayley had no idea how she was going to get Mr. Kirke out of the country, but she had to do it. By the end of the day, her notes were filled with doodles of small animals and a flock of butterflies that used to be paperclips swirled above her head.

Kayley was at the appointed spot on time, and so was Laura, with a tall man

who looked very thin. "Miss Daniels, this is Andrew, Andrew, Miss Daniels."

"Oh, Kayley, please," she said as she shook his hand. Kayley stood back, and thought. They were all there, now what?

"Mr. Kirke, how do you feel about sparrows?" Kayley asked, a new thought just dawning on her.

"Err… sparrows?" he asked, puzzled.

"Yes, sparrows." Kayley said, having mentally gone over her plan she had less faith in it. "My plan is to turn you into a sparrow, and then banish you to my house." Mr. and Mrs. Kirke looked as skeptical as Kayley felt. She didn't blame them, she had never done transfiguration on a human before, and had never heard of any one doing it. She wasn't sure she could do it herself. Luckily, she had banished live animals before.

"Are you sure that's the only way?" Laura asked.

Kayley nodded solemnly. "There are carriages that go cross-continental, but they'll be watching those. You could go by broomstick, but it would be a long trip and it would be easy to track you. The same problem goes for all Muggle transportation, and my security makes it so that you cannot Apparate or Floo to my house. It's the only way I see." Laura nodded. Kayley took out her wand, but didn't point at anything except the ground. "Are you sure about this, Mr. Kirke?" Kayley asked. He nodded looking sick. "When you get to my house, my house elf will take care of you. I'll send word to her. Wait for me there; I'll be there tomorrow night." Kayley paused summoning up all of her courage and more, if possible, power than she used to cross-continental Apparate.

"Relax," she said more to herself than anyone else, "I _won't_ screw this up." Kayley closed her eyes and said the spell in a commanding voice. When she opened her eyes, a little brown sparrow looked up at her on the snow-covered ground. Kayley sighed in relief. She banished the sparrow and hoped it would reach its destination safely. She took out a piece of paper and a pen and scribbled a note to Lucky. She banished that to her house too. She and Laura shook hands and then Kayley Apparated to Malfoy Manor's front gates.

When she went through one of the sitting rooms on the way to her room, she met Mr. Malfoy and a guest. They were talking and Kayley did not stop to talk. She had missed dinner and her stomach growled painfully. She had not realized that her mission would take so long. She was also tired. She had not realized that human transfiguration could take so much out of a person. Thankfully, she was not even close to as tired as she would be after cross-continental Apparation. After a little while and some freshening up, Kayley went downstairs to see if she could sneak into the kitchen.

To get to the kitchens she would have to go through the room Draco and his guest had been in. She hoped the guest was no longer there and Draco would ignore her like he had earlier, but when she got to the room he was alone.

"Where have you been?" he asked as he made his way to the liquor cabinet.

"I…Mrs. Weasley invited me to dinner." Kayley lied. "I'm sorry." she added as and after thought. She felt uneasy. She should have told him she had to work late. That would have been closer than the truth anyway.

He shrugged off her apology as he poured a glass of wine. "I didn't know there was a Mrs. Weasley, not one who worked anyway. Mrs. Weasley's getting a bit old." he said evenly.

"She's not much older than me," Kayley said as Draco handed her a glass.

"The youngest—what was her name? Oh, Ginny, I thought she'd married Harry Potter. Perhaps she's taken her maiden name back," Draco said calmly. Kayley was amazed that he could talk about Harry Potter so calmly. Had he helped kill him? It took Kayley a minute to get her thoughts under control.

"I—I believe her name was Hermione," Kayley said.

Draco nodded and took a sip of his wine. "Of course, she would have married a weasel," Draco said softly.

"Did—do you know her?" Kayley asked cautiously, she could tell he wasn't in a good mood, but she wasn't sure he was in a bad mood either.

"We went to school together," he said simply.

Kayley couldn't think of anything else to say. She drained he glass and set it down on the cabinet. "Good night, Mr. Malfoy," she said and started to leave.

"Your notes," he called after her.

Kayley stopped and turned around. "Right, I'll go get them," she said softly.

Kayley went to work the next day. She would go home that afternoon when she got off. She worried all day. Had the Death Eaters been at St. Mungo's last night? If they had, she imagined they would be livid. Would Draco ask her about it?

At five o'clock she Apparated to Malfoy Manor, after the long trek to the door she went to her room. She had packed everything she hadn't used this morning last night, and didn't have much to pack. She finished packing and banished her trunk to her house.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs and was surprised to see Draco. He usually went to 'work' before she did, and was never home until at least an hour before she got there. To her surprise he didn't say anything to her about Mr. Kirke or anything else. He asked for her notes and for the first time ever she gave him the original and kept the copy, nothing had happened today. Then he surprised her again by walking her to the gate.

Kayley landed on her front porch after Apparating. She was instantly overcome by fatigue. She tossed her cloak on a chair in the first sitting room and was greeted by a small sparrow that sat on the back of the couch looking at her.

"I'll change you back when I wake up." she promised. "It may be awhile." She hated to make him wait, but she knew she was useless at transfiguration while she was this tired.

Kayley got up Sunday and showered and got dressed. She made her way to the dinning room, seeing no signs of the little sparrow. She stepped into the dinning room and was surprised to see him perched on a plate eating a piece of toast. Kayley set down across from him and started on a piece of toast herself. "I'm sorry I slept so long." Of course, the sparrow didn't answer.

After breakfast Kayley got up and took out her wand. The sparrow, who had now taken up his perch on the back of one of the dining room chairs, cocked his head at her. "On the floor, please." Kayley said, trying to mentally get herself ready to turn him back. He left the chair and landed on the burgundy carpet at her feet. She raised her wand and concentrated. She closed her eyes and clearly said the spell and when she opened her eyes a man stood before her instead of a bird. Kayley lowered her wand and put it back into her pocket.

"Mr. Kirke," she said in acknowledgement, before she led him to the sitting room. She sat down in the second sitting room, which was smaller, and he took a seat opposite of her.

"What am I going to do about my job?" he asked. Kayley could hear a tone of regret in his voice. Kayley thought for a minute.

"I'll have a word with my Minister, and then I'll contact Mrs. Weasley about my plan for the relocation program that I will lead. She can talk to the Minister over there."

Mr. Kirke sighed "And what about my salary?" he asked, still not sounding sure that Kayley's plan would work.

"One of the Ministries, or myself, will pay your usual salary. I'll help you find a new job, with a different name, here and if it doesn't make as much as your other job, someone will make up the difference."

"What other job could I get here?"

Kayley thought awhile. "What was your best subject in school?"

"Charms," he said. "Why?"

"How would you feel about teaching?"

"I've thought about that, is there a position open?"

Kayley stood up. "I don't know, I'll go find out."

He followed her into the next sitting room. She picked up her cloak and wrapped it around her. "What? Now?"

"Yeah, I'll be right back." Mr. Kirke stared after her as she walked out the door and Apparated. She had to get him out of her house, before she had certain company. Things would not go well on either side if Draco came over and her and Mr. Kikre saw each other. With any luck, he could start the middle of this week, although Kayley doubted it. It was the middle of the school year. There was no reason for a position to be open. Maybe he could live there until next year and then teach there, but every idea Kayley suggested to herself was quickly eaten by doubt.

Kayley entered the little cave and walked up the drawbridge again. She didn't stop to talk to anyone, but went straight to Professor Jarvis' office. She raised her fist and knocked timidly on his giant oak door. She entered after hearing a muffled come in on the other side of the door.

She opened the door and went. Professor Jarvis stood up in surprise. "Kayley," he said in a surprised voice, by way of greeting. "What can I do for you?" he asked sitting back down at the same time as Kayley.

Kayley sighed realizing how foolish this was going to sound. "Well," she started slowly, "I was wondering if there might be an opening in the charms department."

He smiled "Lose your job?" he teased.

"No!" she said defensively. "I have a…um…friend that needs a job."

"A friend?" he asked suggestively.

Kayley gave him a dirty look. "It has to do with work." Kayley said. "I can't give you the details, because I haven't gotten it cleared yet." Kayley said.

"Well, Professor Reynolds went into retirement last year and I am getting tired of running the transfiguration classes, the charms classes, and my advanced classes. I would be happy to have someone else take on the charms classes, but you'd have to check with the principal." Professor Jarvis said.

"I was hoping to find out if the position was open first." Kayley said, explaining why she went to him first. Professor Jarvis nodded. "Is Mr. Milton in?"

"I believe so," Professor Jarvis said. "Is that all? You wouldn't like to ask me anything else?"

Kayley smiled. "No, Professor, I'm still to busy." She said standing and starting for the door. "See you later."

Kayley made her way back down to the first floor, where the principal's office was. She knocked on his door and entered after beckoned.

"Miss Daniels!" Mr. Milton greeted. "Have a seat." Kayley settled herself into the chair across from him. "What can I do for you?" he asked, writing something down and then looking at her.

"Well, I have a friend who would like to take up your charms position," Kayley said.

Mr. Milton went back to his papers. "And your friend's name is?"

"And—yeah," Kayley ran her hand through her hair. "About that, this kind of has something to do with the Ministry, and I haven't it cleared yet, and so I'm afraid I can't supply you with a name."

"Well," he said heavily allowing his gaze to fall back upon her. "Then I'm afraid he can't have the job. No name, no job."

"How soon after I get it cleared could he start?" Kayley asked.

"Oh, the day of, I imagine. He just needs to fill out the paper work. I daresay Professor Jarvis will be happy for the break."

Kayley smiled and stood. "Thank you, Mr. Milton," she said before she showed herself to the door.


	11. Chapter 11: An Old Acquaintance

Kayley entered work the next morning on a mission. She needed to check with Leta to see if the Minister would be in any meetings that day. She turned to Leta's desk and sighed. It looked like she would have to wait in line. There was a young brunette man already talking to Leta.

"Are you sure?" Kayley heard when she came into hearing range.

Leta studied some papers. "Yes, she's due to be in later today, but you never know. She was delayed last time." The young man sighed.

"Alright, thank you." He turned around and almost ran into Kayley. "Excuse me," he said.

Kayley looked up, "Oh, Excuse—" she paused, seeing him properly for the first time. "Travis? What are you doing here?" She smiled.

He smiled too. "Well, I was just asking about you." Kayley got herself together after a minute, and remembered her mission.

"Uh, Leta, could you make me an appointment with the Minister, please? Just send a memo with the time to my office."

"Ooh, your own office?" he asked teasingly.

Kayley smiled at him proudly. "Yes, my own office, would you follow me please, Mr. Kelby?"

She led him up to her office and he took the only seat across from her desk. Kayley sat behind her desk in her office chair.

"So…where have you been? I almost didn't recognize you, you look so _old,"_ Kayley teased.

"You too," he replied good-naturedly. "I've been in Europe, most of the past years," he said.

"Big bad Death Eater now?" she joked. She wouldn't have, but she already knew the answer and needed to let off some stress after the weekend.

He mock shivered, and then sighed seriously. "No, of course not. Then you would have to arrest me," he added, breaking his seriousness. "I got hit up by some recruiters. I said I wasn't interested at the moment and left the country." He was back to being serious and Kayley just nodded. "I've heard stories about people I know though," he said simply. Kayley wondered if that was a reference to her brother.

They talked about the four years they had been absent from each other's live until a little yellow memo paper swept into Kayley's office. She caught it in mid air and read it. It only said _eleven thirty_ in neat script. She sighed, the memory of all that she had to accomplish and in an unknown and almost certainly short time came flooding back. She looked up at the clock. It read eleven fifteen. She hadn't realized that they'd been talking that long. "Travis, I have a meeting in fifteen minutes."

He stood and strolled over to his cloak that was laid across the couch in the small parlor section of the room. He wrapped it around himself and turned. "It was great to see you again," he paused, and looked unsure. "Maybe we could have dinner sometime?"

"I'd love that, but not tonight." She shook her head sadly. "Actually, probably not this week. Maybe next week?" she suggested.

He smiled. "I'll hold you to it." He turned and headed toward the door. Kayley watched her ex leave somewhat wistfully. She recalled that she had been so mad at him when he left. He had been two years ahead of her and after he graduated she hadn't heard from him until today. She'd just been mad at him because he left, but he had been a jerk not to contact her for four years.

Mrs. Kipling walked in almost immediately after Travis left. She must have been watching, she had come in while they were talking and they insisted that she stay, Travis had even said he needed to leave anyway, but Mrs. Kipling assured them that he didn't have to leave and gathered up some papers and left. Kayley realized guiltily that that had been at eight o'clock and it was now after eleven.

"Who was that?" Mrs. Kipling asked, starting to clear off her desk.

"My ex-boyfriend," Kayley said, still ashamed of making Mrs. Kipling leave, even if she had volunteered.

Mrs. Kipling nodded understandingly. "It's been awhile since you've seen him?"

"Yes, four years." She stood and started organizing her own desk and trying to think up an appropriate speech for the Minister. She left her office at five 'till it was time.

She raised her fist and knocked confidently on the Minister's door. She went in after she had been invited. He was sitting at his desk with his hands folded waiting for her. She noticed that his hair was getting thin on the top of his head before she sat down.

"What can I do for you, Miss. Daniels?" he asked.

"Well, while I was in England, I met Mr. Andrew Kirke. We were touring St. Mungo's and his wife told me that he was in there for Death Eater related injuries. Mr. Kirke was an employee from the Department of Mysteries. Mrs. Kirke was afraid that they, the Death Eaters, would be after him, wanting information. She said that she had asked Mrs. Weasley if she could relocate him and of course, Mrs. Weasley said that they did not have a relocation program and she could not relocate him. She asked if I would consider relocating him. I thought about it and I wasn't going to, but I didn't want him to die if I could stop it. So, I did, Minister, I relocated him to here and he is currently staying at my house," Kayley paused and the Minister didn't say anything. "So, I was thinking, Minister, that our contribution to the war effort could be a relocation program. I'll head it from here and the documents will be difficult for the Death Eaters to get a hold of," she stopped again, this time waiting for him to say something. "So, what do you think, Minister?" she finally got up the courage to ask.

"I…I think it's an idea," he said slowly.

Kayley smiled wryly "Yes, but what kind?"

"Well, I'm not sure it's a good idea, but I'm fairly certain that it's not a bad idea either. Are you suggesting that I start a new department and put you at the head?"

Kayley's eyes widened. "Oh no, Minister, I thought it would be a separate project."

"Do you think you can handle your suggested project and the foreign relations too?"

"Yes," Kayley said more confidently than she felt.

He sighed. "I will contact Minister Scrimgeour, and you inform Mrs. Weasley of your plan," he finally said decisively.

Kayley was asked to the Minister's office as she was getting ready to go. She locked the door to her office and started to the Minister's office cloak in hand. His door was open and Kayley went in and sat down. He was hastily scribbling out a letter.

"Miss Daniels, congratulations on your new project," the Minister said distractedly. "The British ministry said that they would go on paying him until he found another job and then make up the difference. He's to go on working for the ministry and communication will be through you; I believe that's what you had in mind?"

"Yes, exactly!" Kayley said trying to conceal her delight. "Now, Minister, perhaps I could come in tomorrow and you could fill out the paper work for Mr. Kirke to change his name? Then he could start work Wednesday," she said feeling guiltily happy about getting him out of her house so soon.

Kayley found Mr. Kirke in the study writing a letter to his wife when she got home. They had dinner and then set to the task of deciding upon an alias. Tomorrow he would be Mr. Taylor Stafford. Kayley set to studying _The Complex Book of Transfiguration_ perhaps Mr. Stafford would have a new look too.

Kayley got the official name change papers set up and got a slightly different looking Mr. Stafford settled in at her old school. Things were going quite well, Kayley thought as she sat at her desk after introducing Mr. Stafford to Professor Jarvis and having a lengthy conversation with the latter. She had asked him to sign _all _of his letters with his new name and assured him that she would explain the situation to his wife.

While she was going over the days events a young barn owl landed lightly on her desk. She took the letter off of the owl's leg and immediately fell into a fit of laughter.

_My Dearest Kayley,_

_Your suggestion of making me wait until next week makes me shudder. I urge you to reconsider and have dinner with me this Friday at Scribner's at seven o'clock. I anxiously await your reply._

_Yours forever,_

_Travis Kelby._

Kayley took out a pen and a piece of paper, still laughing.

_My Darling Travis,_

_I would be honored to have dinner with you on Friday night. Things have luckily calmed down a bit and I am no longer as busy as I expected to be. O as eagerly awaiting Friday night._

_All my love,_

_Kayley Daniels._

Kayley was still giggling as she attached her envelope to the waiting owl's leg.

Kayley left work a little early Friday—well a lot early. She left right after Mrs. Kipling, which was an hour earlier than usual. She reasoned that she had a lot to do before seven o' clock and would need all of those extra two hours.

She clipped up her light brown hair carefully after her shower. She selected black slacks and a teal turtleneck sweater. She had a feeling that Travis would have liked something shorter (and of the skirt variety) but it was too cold. She stepped onto her porch, it was freezing, and she was glad she wouldn't have to be outside long. She Apparated to the alley behind Scribner's and made her way into the little restaurant. It was small, but quaint. It was dimly lit with circular tables and booths and had deep red curtains around the windows pulled back so that you could see the night.

She saw him, sitting in the back and the dimmer lit part of the restaurant. She made her way past the tables to him. The restaurant wasn't very full of people, but there was no shortage on tables.

"Miss Daniels," he said in polite greeting as he pulled out her chair for her. Kayley sat and looked over the menu while he went back to his seat. "You got my letter," he stated conversationally.

She put the menu down and smiled at him. "Yes, it was very charming."

"Yours was good, too," he said.

They ordered and caught up some more on the past. "May I walk you to your door?" he asked when they had finished eating.

Kayley looked at him hesitantly. "It's kind of cold and out of your way," Kayley said.

"It would be my pleasure to walk you to your door," he said certainly.

"Alright," Kayley said pushing her chair in. They Apparated to Kayley's gate and she had to perform a warming charm on herself because her jacket wasn't warm enough.

"It was a pleasure, Miss Daniels," Travis said, kissing her hand. Kayley laughed at his act that he had assumed since he wrote the letter.

"Well, Mr. Kelby, if you're in a hurry to be on your way, that's fine, but I was going to invite you in for hot chocolate," she paused, but not for very long. "Oh, well, maybe next time," she said opening the door.

"Now, Kayley, you know I always have time for hot chocolate," he said following her in.

They talked over hot chocolate for another hour before she walked him to the door.

"When can I see you again?" he asked.

"You haven't even left yet!" Kayley teased. "I don't know, owl me," she said seriously. "But remember, I'm not allowed to go out on a school night." She smiled.

"I'll remember that," he said seriously. Then he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Good night, Kayley," he said before he left.

Travis and Kayley started going out every week. She checked on Andrew, now Taylor, often and Professor Jarvis often used her visits to try to talk her into learning wandless magic.

It was very cold on January twelfth, as Kayley got ready to go back to England. She thought that they were having an unusually cold winter. It didn't snow much, but when it did they got more than three inches. Kayley had several things to do before she went back. She needed to check on Taylor and make sure she had all of the paper work she needed. Kayley imagined that she wouldn't be leaving until well after noon. Then she needed to check in at the Leaky Cauldron. She had had to explain why she hadn't stayed there last time, and it wasn't fun telling the Minister that she had stayed at a Muggle motel.

It was only seven when Kayley got to the Leaky Cauldron. She made her way to the bar and Tom gave her a toothless smile. "Good evening, Miss," he greeted.

"Good evening," she returned.

He turned and took down a key. He handed it to her. "I've enchanted it to only work when you have reservations. Just keep it and you won't have to waste time getting your key."

Kayley gave him a tired smile. "Thank you, Sir," she said before heading to her room.

Sunday afternoon she took her lunch in her room and then sent her trunk to Malfoy Manor. She wrapped her cloak snuggly around her and Apparated to the Manor. She landed outside the front gate—the locked front gate. Kayley couldn't say she hadn't guessed that it would be locked (he had been expecting her Friday evening), but it was still annoying. She pulled her cloak around her a little tighter and set to work at undoing the charms to get her in.

She was relieved when she reached the massive door and it was answered by a timorous girl in a maid uniform. She nervously stepped back to let Kayley in. "Mr. Malfoy around?" Kayley asked. The girl nodded nervously and set off in the direction that Kayley knew lead to the stairs. They shortly ran into Draco.

"Fernella, where is Katrina?" Draco asked Kayley's young guide. He had asked in a questioning tone, instead of strict or annoyed, but the young girl still quivered.

"I—I lost her, Sir, I—I—I'm very sorry," she stuttered out after a pause.

"Well, go find her," Draco advised, still in a normal tone. She nodded and hurried off. Draco turned to Kayley and shook his head. "I'm sorry about that, she's new," he explained.

Kayley shrugged. "It's fine."

"I expected you Friday," he said. "I would have had the gates unlocked."

"That's alright, I'm getting quicker at undoing them," she joked. "I had to go to the Leaky Cauldron. The Minister asked me why I hadn't stayed there last time." He nodded and Kayley realized that they were in front of her room.

"I'm having another guest at dinner tonight," he said pointedly looking at her jeans.

"Oh, alright, would you like me to eat in my room then?" Kayley asked.

Draco looked taken aback "No, of course not." Then he turned awkwardly and went back the way they came.

That evening Kayley wore her cerulean robes and paid extra attention to her hair and make-up. She went to dinner at the usual time and found Draco and his guest already seated. They both stood when she came into the room. The guest was tall, young, black man. "Kayley Daniels, this is Blaise Zabini, Blaise, Kayley." Kayley and Blaise shook hands and then the three of them sat.

Kayley wondered at first what they would talk about, if they would talk about 'business' and leave her out, but both men had been brought up better than that and the three of them talked easily about politics and prices going up and other domestic topics. Neither of them said any thing about Death Eaters, besides references to the war, and Kayley realized that night as she was getting ready for bed that she had not told one lie that night. Luckily she hadn't had the need to.

At work the next day they went over details on the new relocation program. They talked about potential people to relocate, and she was bullied into agreeing to give an interview to the _Daily Prophet_ the next day.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Harry Potter characters or anything from Harry Potter. The only thing that I own is plot and any characters that you don't recognize.

She was shocked to find Draco at the Manor when she got there after work. He was sitting in a chair in a room that was on the way to her bedroom, reading a paper and looked as if he had been waiting on her. He tossed her the paper and she starred down at the front page in horror. "Have you seen this?" he asked calmly. There was a picture of her talking to Mrs. Weasley and a headline that read "New Relocation Program Set For Launch."

"Err… well, you see, we didn't have this set up until after I went back home and it slipped my mind yesterday," she said at length.

Draco was lounging on the couch, looking extremely lazy, but in a dangerous way, like a lion deciding whether to pounce or not. "I see. Your notes, please," he said eventually. Kayley made a face; she had not had time to change them, and knew he wouldn't let her make an excuse not to give them to him. She grudgingly pulled out her notes and copied them in front of him and then handed him one of the papers.

He was waiting for and took her notes as soon as she got back for the rest of the week.


	12. Chapter 12: Hogsmeade

Kayley and Draco avoided each other over the next few days. They barely spoke, especially at dinner. Kayley took to wandering around the mansion after dinner. She half hoped and dreaded to find the room the woman had been in. She felt restless and was unable to sit down long enough to read a book. On Thursday, the day before she was supposed to go home, she stumbled onto Draco's study after getting lost. She glanced through the open door before going on, afraid to disturb him, and not wanting to talk to him.

"Miss Daniels?" Draco said.

Kayley turned around to see him standing behind her. "Yes?"

"May I take you out for a drink?"

"Yes, I suppose."

They walked out the front door. It was still snowing. Kayley looked around, taking it all in. Then, with out warning, Kayley felt his arms wrap firmly around her waist, and realized that they were Apparating.

Her feet hit the ground with a thump, and she felt the snow seep into her shoes. They were standing in an alley facing a snall village. He released her and she took a closer look at the alley. "Where are we?" she asked, throwing him a dirty look.

"Hogsmeade." he replied, leading her out of the alley.

"Hogsmeade?" she said wonderingly, glancing left and right at the shops. They stopped at a small pub. Kayley noticed that the sign above it read _The Three Broomsticks._ Draco held the door open for her.

It was dimly lit, and Draco lead Kayley to an even darker table in the back corner. This was fine with Kayley; she really didn't want the press to know that she went to bars with Draco Malfoy.

He ordered something called a butterbeer and Kayley decided to try it. It was good, and she immediately felt warmer. She and Draco talked about their pasts mostly. They both wanted to stay away from the subject of work. Kayley avoided talking about her parents and that left them mostly with school. Draco told her about Hogwarts.

"Isn't that close to here?" Kayley asked.

He nodded. "It's very close."

"I've always wanted to see it." Kayley said wistfully. Draco looked thoughtful and started another story. Kayley knew that he and Harry Potter must have gone to school together from what she read in the newspaper, but Draco never mentioned him. Draco had told her that he had gone to school with Hermione and her husband, but he never mentioned them either.

They finished their drinks and went back to the alley. Kayley was now paying more attention to Draco and skillfully dodged him as he reached out to Apparate back.

"Oh, no." Kayley said from a safe distance. "I know the way back, thank you."

Draco merely shrugged. "Fine, but you'll have to go through the gates and I'm not disarming them. It's getting colder." he observed, and it was; the sun had set and the temperature was probably well below freezing. Kayley threw him a dirty look and grudgingly wrapped her arms snugly around his neck. He placed his around her waist and they were back at the manor in seconds. Draco followed Kayley into the manor. When she reached the stairs she turned to face him. "Good night, Mr. Malfoy," she said before mounting the stairs to go to bed.

"Good night, Miss Daniels," he returned softly. She was already half way up the stairs and he wasn't sure she heard him.

The next day Kayley returned home after work. There were two little squirrels waiting on her couch when she got home, one grey, one brown. She tossed her cloak over the couch before slipping into her post-Apparation coma.

She got up Sunday morning to find the grey squirrel on her table, standing on his hind legs and drinking coffee. The brown squirrel was positioned over a bowl of oatmeal. Kayley watched the pair eat in amusement while she ate her own toast. After breakfast they adjourned to the living room to be turned back. Kayley pointed her wand at the two squirrels, closed her eyes, and concentrated. When she opened her eyes, Mr. and Mrs. Whitby stood in front of her, instead of two squirrels.

Mr. and Mrs. Whitby both worked in the Department of Mysteries. They talked about their other magical talents and they, and Kayley decided that, perhaps, they could be aids at the school.

Kayley set off at once to see if she could arrange it. The castle where Kayley had attended school was becoming more and more familiar, like it had been when she had gone to school there, because she was visiting so often. Her meeting with Mr. Milton went well, they didn't really need aids, but they had work for them, and Mr. Milton agreed to take on two teachers aids from England after Kayley got their names, and appearances changed.

After Kayley saw Mr. Milton she decided to go and see Professor Jarvis about something that had been on her mind lately. She carefully made her way up the stairs, through the crowd of students that had just got out of class, to Professor Jarvis' class. She knocked loudly on the door and entered after being bidden.

"Ah, Miss Daniels!" Professor Jarvis greeted as she entered his office and took a seat across from him. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I've been thinking about it a lot lately," Kayley said slowly, studying the wood on his desk. She looked up, "I think I've found some time to take lessons from you." she said decisively. His whole face lit up like a little kid at Christmas.

"Can you start today?" he asked, starting to stack the mess of papers on his desk.

"Well, yes, I suppose." Kayley said thoughtfully. "Do you have time today?"

"Oh, yes, the first lesson is always the easiest, and also the most boring, I'm afraid." He was now standing to stack his papers. "The first step is just a practice assignment, it's sort of like exercise to make you stronger." He sat back down and looked at her. "Have you ever needed a light in the dark, and knew that your wand was close? You whisper_ Lumos_ and see a light that you realize is attached to your wand? You pick it up and the light grows brighter." Kayley nodded. "That is your assignment. I want you to be able to light your wand when you're on the bottom floor of your house and your wand is on the top floor. You have two weeks." He paused. "That is your assignment, Miss Daniels." Kayley was speechless.

"Thank you, sir." she said before leaving his office.

Kayley came home satisfied with the fact that she had two jobs secured for her temporary houseguests. They set to the task of deciding on new names. Mr. Whitby was now Mr. Joshua Hooper and Mrs. Whitby was now Mrs. Kara Hooper. Then Kayley started altering their appearances.

They had dinner and Kayley showed Mr. and Mrs. Hooper to their room. Then Kayley went to her own room and practiced her wandless magic. Kayley set her wand by the wall and took four paces back. It lit up easily enough. She kept backing up until she was against the far wall in her adjoined bathroom, and her wand was against the far wall in her bedroom. She had to concentrate harder, but it was still remarkably easy. She went to bed satisfied that she had started on the first step.

Kayley brought the legal documents to change the Whitby's names home with her on her lunch break the next day. They signed them and Kayley took the papers back to work with her to collect the rest of the signatures she needed. She would take the new Mr. and Mrs. Hooper to the school as soon as she got off work. The school only had another semester left, and Kayley was sure that they could stay there over the summer, but she would not be able to get any more people jobs there. For one thing, the next time she got back from Britain it would be February, and she couldn't argue that the new semester had just started. Another reason was that the school had enough employees.

Kayley took the Hoopers to their new positions at the school and checked on them and Mr. Stafford regularly. Then she started thinking about where she would put the next people she relocated. She also practiced on her wandless magic every night, she had more time now that she was home alone except for the house elves. By the end of the week she could light her wand when she was on the first floor and her wand was on the second. It was a lot of work and took more concentration. She often gave herself headaches while she was practicing. She was starting to run low on the potion she took for headaches and would have to think of someone to ask to make her some more.

She had a list of several countries that she would like to send people she would have to relocate to, but she had no idea where in those countries to send them. A job in Diagon Alley, or anywhere in Britain was out of the question, even if they did have an assumed name and a new appearance. She was thinking somewhere more along the line of Ireland, Scotland, Australia, or France for someone who could speak French.

Kayley asked the Minister if she could have a week off to go to Ireland and find some place for them. He said that she could and started looking for somewhere for her to stay while she was there. It took a surprisingly short time and the next day she Apparated to Kenmare. She stayed at a cozy cottage bed and breakfast. She woke up three days later and went down to ask for directions to get to the Alley that was supposed to be located in the town.

"Good-morning," Mrs. McKinney, the owner of the bed and breakfast said. "I didn't expect you to sleep so long."

Kayley smiled. "It was a long way."

Mrs. McKinney nodded. "Would you like some breakfast, dear?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you." Kayley said.

After Kayley finished her breakfast of bacon and eggs she went to look for Mrs. McKinney. She was in a bedroom dusting the furniture. The dust rag swept gracefully over the dresser, easily controlled by Mrs. McKinney's wand.

"Yes?" Mrs. McKinney asked noticing her.

"I was wondering how to get to the Alley." Kayley said.

"You get to Adair Alley by the coat closet by the door when you first come in." Mrs. McKinney said. "I know this sounds silly, but you just go in, shut the door and tap the ceiling with your wand." Mrs. McKinney said.

"Thank you." Kayley said starting for the front door.

The front door was placed at the end of a short entrance hall. The floor was wooden and the walls were a cream color. On the left side of the door after you came in was an end table with books stacked on the shelf underneath the table part. There was a vase with fresh flowers setting on the table, and figurines of magical creatures setting beside it. There was a glass pond filled with mermaids and a sea serpent rearing its head out of the water. There was a griffin and a Hippogriff poised for flight on separate ends of the table and a dragon with fire flowing out of its mouth in the middle. On the opposite side of the door was a wooden door that was apparently the closet.

Kayley opened it and stepped in. It was difficult to do because the closet was in use. There were cloaks hanging from the bar a cross the ceiling. She shut the door, trying not to knock anyone's cloak to the floor. She was immediately surrounded by darkness. She raised her left hand to grasp the bar for balance and tapped the ceiling with her wand in her right hand. The wall behind her opened up, spilling light into the small closet. Kayley dropped her hand that was holding the bar balancing her and took a closer look. The wall was completely gone and there was a little cobblestone road starting where the wall should have been and going into the little market that had opened up.

Kayley grabbed her cloak and wrapped it around herself. It was cloudy outside and she could feel a cold breeze coming into the closet. Kayley looked left and right as she passed the shops. She had decided that she would look around first and then decide which shop to visit first. She had to choose carefully, because she only had today to visit. She would be going home the next morning. Kayley was impressed with market. Even though it was small and not very crowded there was a wide assortment of shops. They had book shops, supply shops, pet shops, wizarding sporting shops. They had everything that Diagon Alley had, only there were no second hand shops, or first hand shops, because the small alley only had room for a sample of each type of shop and street venders.

She decided to go to the bookshop first, since it had the potential to be her favorite. It was small, but packed. There were books wall to wall. It was true that they didn't have as good a selection as Flourish & Blotts Bookstore, but Kayley was fairly sure that they didn't have room for more books. Kayley wondered around Adair Alley all afternoon. She was impressed that all of the little stores were packed with merchandise. She had lunch at a sandwich stand outside of the wizard sporting goods store. She was sure that anyone she relocated could find work here, and went to bed satisfied that night.

She went home the next day and slept until Sunday. She practiced her wandless magic most of the day, and went to bed that night tired, but satisfied. She had gone up a floor. For the next week she practiced wandless magic every time she had a chance. She practiced before work, on her lunch break and after work because she felt guilty for not practicing during her trip to Ireland. She wasn't sure she would be able to light it from the first floor of her house while it was on the top by the time Professor Jarvis expected her too.


	13. Chapter 13: Hogwarts

Kayley was down stairs having her morning coffee when she heard the door fly open and footsteps making their way down the hall toward her. Kayley scowled and swished her coffee in a circular motion. "Maybe you could, oh, I don't know, _not slam the door_?" Kayley asked looking up from her coffee at Sky.

"Sorry." Sky said sheepishly.

Kayley shrugged and sat down on the couch that was conveniently behind her.

"So, what's up?" Kayley asked.

Sky smiled, blushing. "I was wondering if you could come to dinner tomorrow night." Sky said.

"Ahh, that's sweet, Sky, but I don't feel that I'm ready to take our relationship to the next level." Kayley managed to keep a strait face as she said it.

Sky scowled at Kayley. "Get over yourself. I met a guy, and he's coming over for dinner tomorrow night, and I wanted you to meet him with my parents."

"Ahhh! Sky, you always were my favorite sister." Kayley said smiling.

Sky sat back in her seat and looked Kayley up and down as if sizing her up. "Well, you'll do." she said after a moment.

Kayley put on her best hurt look. "Well, if you're going to be that way, get out of my house." she glanced at the clock on the wall and stood up. "No, seriously, I'm going to be late for work." Kayley said when Sky didn't move.

"Miss Daniels?" Nichelle said, poking her head into Kayley's office. Kayley looked up from the forms she was filling out. "The Minister would like to see you in his office."

"Now?" Kayley asked, and Nichelle nodded. Kayley rose and crossed the room to the door wondering what the Minister wanted.

She knocked on his door when she reached it. "Come in!" she heard through the door. Kayley entered and took a seat across from the Minister that was starting to feel like her own.

"I'd like you to go be back on the twelfth." he stated bluntly.

"Of February?" Kayley asked thinking of Travis. They had a date this Saturday and Kayley was sure that he would like to spend Valentine's Day with her.

"Is that a problem, Miss Daniels?" He asked sensing her hesitation.

"No, that's fine." She smiled and stood up. "I'll plan on it." she said, letting herself out of his office.

With the new date for her regular expedition to England less than a month away, and everything she had to do for work and Professor Jarvis, and then add her social life in and Kayley was feeling overworked.

Kayley left work a little early the next day. She wanted to look nice for Sky's dinner. By the time she reached her aunt and uncle's doorstep, Kayley was feeling very excited. Aunt Kya opened the door and Kayley was immediately engulfed in a hug.

"Come in, come in, dinner's ready and he's here!" she added the last in an excited whisper and Kayley aloud herself to be guided into the dining room.

His name was Zane Rycroft, and Kayley could tell that he and Sky were pretty serious. The conversation was pleasant enough, and flowed easily, but Kayley's mind was on something else. They adjourned to the living room after dinner and had coffee and talked some more. Zane left at a quarter after ten, saying that it was late. Kayley knew that she needed to go home, but sensed that Sky wanted her to stay longer.

"Want to go for a walk?" Sky asked as soon as Zane had safely gone home.

"Err, that depends, inside or out?" It was a cold night, there were clouds around that could produce snow, but Kayley knew that it was too cold to snow and preferred not to go outside.

"Inside," Sky said with a smile. Kayley got up and followed her down a hall in the opposite direction of the front door. "So, what did you think?" she asked, trying to sound casual.

"He's nice." Kayley said.

"That's all? Nice?"

"And charming and he's great, Sky. Does he meet your parent's standards?" Kayley asked purely out of curiosity.

Sky nodded. "Yup, he's a pureblood." she said, confirming Kayley's suspicions.

"Where's he from?"

"Boston." Sky replied. He had told them at dinner that he came here to start a bookstore.

"So you guys are pretty serious?" Kayley asked.

Sky nodded again, and blushed. "How are things with you and Travis? I thought maybe if we got a little more serious we could have a double wedding."

"Me and Travis?" Kayley asked, clearly shocked.

"Well, I thought that you know, you guys were cutest couple our fifth year, and he's back and you guys are going out…oh my gosh! Did you break up?"

"No," Kayley said slowly, "but you know how Travis is. He'll get tired of being here and want to move, and then we'll end up moving like every five years, and I'm just not interested in that.

"But you go to another country once a month." Sky pointed out.

"Yeah, but that's business. I'll bet that Travis has been to every state and most of the countries. Speaking of work, it's late. I'd better go." They turned around and headed in the opposite direction. "Congratulations," Kayley said, giving Sky a hug. She then hurried to the front door and home.

Kayley's date on Saturday night came up much faster than she was ready for. She left work early again to get ready. He had told her to be sure and dress up, which meant that they were going somewhere nice. Kayley chose a short black dress with short sleeves and hoped that they were going somewhere warm, because she didn't have a coat to go with it. She had a heavy black cloak, her favorite one that she always wore to England, (since it always seemed to be snowing there) but there weren't any only wizarding places to eat at and she didn't want to be stared at by Muggles.

Kayley pulled her hair into a messy bun, leaving tendrils of hair down to frame her face. She applied her make up and then waited, or fretted and nearly changed twice.

There was a knock at her bedroom door and Kayley sat down on the bed and played with some papers to look like she wasn't waiting. "Come in." she said. Garvin opened the door and Kayley looked up from the papers that she wasn't really looking at in the first place.

"Mr. Kelby is here, Miss." he said, opening the door wider.

Kayley stood up. "Thank you, Garvin." she said strolling out of the door in front of him. Travis was seated in the sitting room at the bottom of the stairs. He stood up right before she was at the bottom of the stairs.

"You look nice." he said as she crossed the room to where he was standing.

"Thank you, you do too." Kayley smiled as she allowed herself to be led to the door. They took a taxi to the restaurant, which was different for Kayley, and kind of weird, since she and Travis had been raised the same way, but it gave them more time to talk. They went to an Italian restaurant. It was beautiful, painted in deep reds and greens with lace-covered tables for two. Each table also had at least two candles.

"This is nice." Kayley said after the waiter brought desert. They had already talked so much that Kayley wasn't sure there was anything else to talk about.

Travis seemed pleased with her comment. "Wait and see what I have planned for Valentine's Day." he said beaming.

"Ahh, about Valentine's Day." Kayley said slowly, playing with the whipped topping on top of her desert.

Travis's face fell. "What about Valentine's Day?"

"I have to work." she said looking up to see his reaction.

"Of course you do, Valentine's Day is on a Monday. I wasn't planning anything until that evening."

Kayley looked at him sadly. "I mean I have to be in England working. I can't just come home and have Valentine's Day with you and then go back."

"Can't you pretend to be sick or something?" he asked hopefully.

"No, I've been there _while_ I was sick. My boss knows that only death will keep me away." she explained patiently, even though she was annoyed. Travis looked put out.

"May I walk you to your door?" he asked after a long pause.

Kayley agreed, but she didn't invite him inside. She felt exhausted and went to bed almost as soon as she got home.

The next day she went by her school for 'wandless magic lessons,' as she had started calling them in her head. Professor Jarvis was happy to see her. "Can you light your wand when it's far away from you?" He asked as she sat down.

"Yes, sir."

"Excellent, now…"

"Sir?" Kayley interrupted.

"Yes?"

"I was just wondering… how far have you gotten?" she asked hesitantly. She felt awkward and like she was questioning him.

He made a book on the shelf beside the door float to him. Kayley noticed that his wand was sitting on a table behind her. Professor Jarvis caught the book and set it on his desk to the side. "You're unimpressed," he said calmly.

"Well, sir, they teach us summoning in like third year." she offered. He lit a fire in the fire place with a flick of his wrist. Kayley had a feeling that he was just showing off now.

"I have not progressed as far as I would have liked to." he said, "But it takes practice, and I expect to have it perfected in less than ten years time."

"Wonderful, I'll never finish." she said sarcastically.

"The difference between you and I is that I am pioneering. You are not, you are learning quicker than I did because I have bettered the method. Now if you're done being skeptical I would like to continue with the lesson. The next step is levitation. I want you to be able to levitate a brick by next week." he said sounding annoyed.

"I'll be in England next week on business." Kayley informed him.

"Well then, Miss Daniels, be able to do it next week and be ready to show me in two weeks. You are dismissed."

Kayley stood up and left, afraid that she had taken too much advantage of his good nature.

Kayley spent that evening outlining and detailing her relocation plan. After looking at what she had written she threw it into the fire. It was not safe to keep anything around anymore, even in her own house. She was surprised that she hadn't had a visitor. Kayley picked up a piece of paper and a pen, while she was thinking about it she might as well send him a letter so that he would know that she was coming. "Lucky!" The little house elf appeared in font of her instantly. "Go mail this for me, please." The house elf bowed and disappeared with a pop. Kayley rubbed her eyes and decided to go to bed.

The next week seemed to pass in a day and before Kayley knew it she was packing. The guard curses were down when Kayley arrived at the Malfoy Mannor, which she was grateful for. For once it wasn't snowing, but it was still very cold.

After what seemed like forever, Kayley reached the front door. She thought that she would pass out from fatigue before someone opened the door. It was the butler again. He looked her up and down. "Yes?"

"Mr. Malfoy is expecting me." Kayley said. The butler raised his shaggy grey eyebrows and started to shut the door, but Kayley was too quick for him, and stuck her he foot in the door.

She smiled demurely, "I assure you, sir, he _is_ expecting me, and it _is_ awfully cold out here."

He held the door open. "Very well." Kayley followed him

Draco was in one of the more feminine sitting rooms when they found him. He was sitting in a maroon chair across from a woman who looked as if she had aged a great deal in a short time. Draco smiled at Kayley when she entered the room. "Good evening, Miss Daniels." He said.

"Good evening, Mr. Malfoy." She answered.

"I would like to introduce you to my mother." He said. "Mother, this is Miss Daniels."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Daniels." Draco's mother said.

"And it's very nice to meet you, Mrs. Malfoy." Kayley said with a deep nod. Then she turned back to Draco. "I think I'll retire now, if you don't mind."

"Of course not, would you like me to walk you to your room?"

She smiled. "No thank you, I think I can find it."

"Miss Kayley! Wake up!." Kayley, still mostly asleep, took a swipe at the house elf that was standing beside her bed. Then she felt a draft, then more than a draft, she was cold. She cracked one eye open sleepily, and say that she was uncovered; all of the covers were at the foot of the bed. She sat up to pull the covers back over herself, but was unable to. The little house elf was standing at the foot of the bed, just out of reach, holding the covers.

Kayley glared at the elf. "Fine." She growled before getting up. The house elf still stood at the foot of the bed, holding the blankets. She ignored it and started getting dressed. A glance at the clock on the wall showed that it was almost twelve thirty.

Kayley was downstairs by one o'clock. Mr. Malfoy was seated at the dining table and eating lunch. He stood when she entered. "Did you sleep well?" He asked after she was seated.

"Yes, thank you." she replied. The conversation was light and border line awkward, and after a short time Draco excused himself to go and do whatever it was that he did on Sundays. Kayley remained at the table and drank her water and thought about random things.

The events of the night before entered her thoughts. Mrs. Malfoy's voice had seemed familiar, she decided. Where had she heard it before? While she was wondering she remembered the dream that she had had the night before. She was wondering around his house and she had come back to the door; the door with the woman behind it, that she had had such sinister thoughts about. In her dream, she was bolder than real life. She pushed the door open to reveal a dark room—a bedroom. There was a bed in the middle of the room and the light from the hall rested on the body of the woman that was resting in the bed. She looked old and frail, and it took Kayley a while to recognize her as Draco's mother. Kayley gently shook herself out of her reverie.

Kayley returned from work the next day frustrated. There was too many, just too damn many, and not enough places to hide them. She couldn't relocate the whole damn ministry and nearly everyone there had reason to believe there was a Death Eater after them.

Kayley worked on a plan for a while in her room before she gave up. It was an exaggeration, of course, that the whole ministry wanted relocated, but it seemed like it.

The whole week went like that. Dinner was average the night before she left, but when Kayley thought about it what had she expected? Draco went to his study afterward and Kayley decided to explore the library some more. She was scanning the shelves, searching for something that looked good that she hadn't heard before when she heard a noise behind her. Kayley turned around to see Draco heading toward her.

"Miss Daniels." Draco said in greeting.

"Mr. Malfoy," she replied.

"Would you accompany me out for a drink?" he asked.

"Yeah," Kayley said before following him out of the room.

When they got to the porch, he surprised her by not quickly grabbing her around the waist and Apparating. It had started to snow and there was already a thin layer on the ground. Kayley surveyed it for a minute before turning to Draco.

"I don't suppose that you want to walk?" she asked ruefully.

"No." He answered promptly. She sighed a little before she wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes.

When she opened her eyes they were standing in the same alley. They walked to the Three Broomsticks and it went in much the same way as the time before, they talked about everything but work. When they finished, Draco looked at her for a long while, before he said, "Can I show you something?"

"Um, sure," Kayley said, surprised for the second time that night.

Draco stood and Kayley followed him out the door. Instead of heading to the alley they had come from, Draco lead her in the opposite direction. They headed down a road in the opposite direction from where they had come. The road was lined with trees, and it seemed to take forever to get to where they were going. Kayley pulled her cloak around her tighter. She looked at the snow on the ground, it was getting deeper. As she concentrated on the snow she didn't realize when Draco stopped and almost ran into him. She caught herself in time and stopped beside him. Then she looked up and caught her breath. There in front of her was the most beautiful castle she had ever seen.

"This is Hogwarts?" she asked. He nodded. "You went to school here?"

"Six years," he said, looking at it too.

Kayley stared at until a sharp bark broke her from her trance. She followed the sound with her eyes, and saw that it was coming from a huge dog that was tied to a stake out side of a wood hut. A huge man came out of the hut and looked in there direction. He held a crossbow in one hand.

"Who's there?" he boomed before starting in there direction.

Draco took her by the elbow. "Time to go." he said starting off in the direction they had come from. The dog started barking more loudly and more rapidly. They were running now, and so was the man behind them, even though he hadn't seen them yet. Draco swore, and mumbled a spell. Kayley heard a swishing sound behind them and realized that their foot prints were disappearing. The next thing Kayley knew she had been pushed to the ground behind a bush, just off of the path, and Draco was on top of her. "Shh," he whispered, before checking the path, the man was almost to them. Then he was on her, kissing her. Before Kayley knew what she was doing her hands had come up and were between them, on his chest, pushing against him to get him off. Then abruptly, she changed her mind, and her hands went up, and over his shoulders and came to rest around his neck, and she was kissing him back.

After what seemed like both a lifetime and no time at all, he stopped and rolled off of her. He stood and helped her up. They both dusted the snow off of themselves. Their pursuer was no where in sight. They walked back to Hogsmeade in silence. When they got back to the alley Kayley put her arms around his neck without protest and they Apparated back to his house with out a word.

He opened the door for her and followed her in. When they got to the stairs that lead to her room she turned back to face him. "Good night, Mr. Malfoy." she said before mounting the stairs.

"Good night Miss Daniels," he said when she was almost at the top of the stairs, and he wasn't sure she had heard him.


End file.
